On 28 Jun 2006 at 20:20, Royce & Faye Green wrote: > Why not just use English grammar as it should be & say the program is "free" > rather than "for free"? > Royce G. ... >> mike scott typed the following on 6/27/2006 4:47 AM: ... > >>> if there's to be /anything/ at all, please let it be in > >>> correct English. "for free" may be alluringly alliterative, > >>> but it is not idiomatic English. > >> > >> > >> You may find <http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990108> > >> informative! :-P > > > > That explains why "for free" always sounds uncomfortably uneducated. But, > > at the same time, the correct alternatives "free of charge" or "free of > > cost" sound more than a little old fashioned these days. > > > > I suspect that avoiding the word "free" altogether would be a good thing.
Hmm. Looking at the random house web page: "The one thing we can observe is that for free is typically not found in formal writing or speech, so prospective users of the idiom should be advised to limit it to more casual contexts." And it subsequently refers to "Bryan Garner, whose Dictionary of Modern American Usage...". I'm talking about /English/ not "American". They are different, and what's acceptable in one may not be in the other. As far as I can tell, it's a usage that's been catching on over here just in the past /few/ years - it is /not/ correct usage. Yet. "obtain OOo free" or "obtain OOo for nothing" (*). Please?? I wasn't intending to start a major "style war". But if I see adverts with incorrect language, then I tend to think twice about using the product, and I doubt whether I'm alone - advertising works both ways. (As a slightly relevant aside. A telecoms company wanted to show it was a field leader. It paid a fortune to an advertising company for the slogan "the name behind tomorrow". Didn't last long - either slogan or company :-) Advertising really /does/ matter.) (*) Yes, that last is ambiguous out of context :-) -- various incoming sites blocked because of spam; see http://www.scottsonline.org.uk for a list and openpgp crypto key (key fingerprint 2ACC 9F21 5103 F68C 7C32 9EA8 C949 81E1 31C9 1364) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mike Scott, Harlow, Essex, England --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
