"Try for free" or "try free"

Question

Recently I have been coming more frequently across offers to "try something free" or "test something free". I used to think that it should be either "try for free" or "try free of charge", but some of these offers come from places that one would think should know their grammar. Is it really accepted nowadays to say "try free"?

Teechr · Accepted Answer

I haven't come across "test something free", but "try something free" is OK to me; "free" functions as an adverb in that.

Anonymous · Answer

teechrI haven't come across "test something free"...

As it happens, I remember seeing for a quite a while an advertisement from the Wall Street Institute saying "Test your English free". At the time it made me quite certain that this is not a place where I would like to test or learn my English. But perhaps I was just out of touch with the latest language trends?

Rover_KE · Answer

Traditional BE speakers like me say 'Have your first piano lesson free' or 'Have your first piano lesson for nothing'.

I regard 'for free' as an AE expression which many BE speakers regrettably now regard as normal.

To me, 'for' is redundant, just as 'of' is in 'He jumped off of the roof'.

Clive · Answer

Standard English is 'free', not 'for free'.
Standard English is 'free', not 'for free'.
Standard English is 'free', not 'for free'

The language is evolving, and I think that the very common 'for free' will be standard soon. But not yet!
It still makes some of us wince! .

Clive

"Try for free" or "try free"

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