ENGLISH
REFERENCE

for free

prep. phr..
B1 Intermediate Oxford

prep. phr.. without having to pay any money for something.

prep. phr.. functioning as an adverbial or adjectival phrase indicating that a transaction involves no cost or payment.


SIMPLE

The museum is open for free on Sundays.

CONTEXTUAL

The company is giving away samples for free to attract new customers to the brand.

COMPLEX

While the software is available for free, users must pay a monthly subscription fee to access the premium features and cloud storage.

Usage

often follows the verb or the noun it describes; sometimes considered redundant by grammarians who prefer 'free'.

Teaching tip

contrast with 'at no cost' (more formal) and 'free of charge'; note that 'for free' is extremely common in spoken English despite some traditionalists' objections.

Pitfall

I got it for freely.I got it for free.the word 'free' functions as the object of the preposition here, so the adverbial form 'freely' is incorrect.

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