For free.

[Riscagirl]

This has been annoying me intensely for several years now. Maybe it's caught on because the alliteration makes it sound good.

[UncleEbenezer]

Perhaps you should be on the grumps board. I've always thought it a perfectly valid idiomatic expression.

Have you recently been hit with it in some dodgy marketing context?

[Octavia100]

I remember a teacher at school some 40 years ago, drumming into us that, grammatically, it's either 'free', or it's 'for nothing', but it's not 'for free'. Over the years I have always thought of that teacher whenever someone has said 'for free', so agree completely, Riscagirl.

[Lootman]

Perhaps you should be on the grumps board. I've always thought it a perfectly valid idiomatic expression.

If ever there were two boards born to be merged together, it is the Pedants' board and the Grumpy board.

[redsturgeon]

Perhaps you should be on the grumps board. I've always thought it a perfectly valid idiomatic expression.

If ever there were two boards born to be merged together, it is the Pedants' board and the Grumpy board.

Where would that leave the cheerful pedants and the laissez faire grumps?

John

[Lootman]

Where would that leave the cheerful pedants and the laissez faire grumps?

Where they are now - a statistically insignificant minority?

[Clitheroekid]

Where would that leave the cheerful pedants and the laissez faire grumps?

With the greatest of respect, I think that "laissez faire", when used as an adjective, should be hyphenated!

[redsturgeon]

Damn, I thought I was in the grumpy place, it appears I was mistaken.

John

[ChiliMonster]

The way see this one is that free is an adjective, whereas nothing is a noun or quantity. Other adjectives might be cheap, expensive. Other quantities or nouns could include ten pounds, for example.

I got it "for nothing" or "for ten pounds"; not "for free" or "for cheap" (though I have heard it).

ChiliMonster

[swill453]

The BBC News style guide concurs:

"Free
is an adjective (He left the court a free man) or an adverb (The spectators were admitted free). It is wrong to speak of receiving something ‘for free’. You receive it either free or for nothing." http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism ... 0112740749

However they don't always comply themselves:

"Work for free? How funny" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37924674

Scott.

[quelquod]

If ever there were two boards born to be merged together, it is the Pedants' board and the Grumpy board.

'they are the Pedants' ...'

[chas49]

If ever there were two boards born to be merged together, it is the Pedants' board and the Grumpy board.

'they are the Pedants' ...'

Can things be merged anything other than together?

[Lootman]

If ever there were two boards born to be merged together, it is the Pedants' board and the Grumpy board.

'Can things be merged anything other than together?

Yes, the "together" in my statement is redundant, just like the "anything" in your statement.

[chas49]

Got me!

[jackdaww]

Where would that leave the cheerful pedants and the laissez faire grumps?

Where they are now - a statistically insignificant minority?

===============

there are a lot of us about ...

[JMN2]

I am so impressed. One lady on the radio just said "for nothing". There is hope, still.

[UncleEbenezer]

I am so impressed. One lady on the radio just said "for nothing". There is hope, still.

Freedom is for nothing? Oh dear.

[JMN2]

I am so impressed. One lady on the radio just said "for nothing". There is hope, still.

Freedom is for nothing? Oh dear.

Don't know anything about freedom, just heard someone say for nothing instead of for free.