English Language & Usage Asked by user93573 on July 29, 2021
Do you write or say other adjectives before or after the adjective free of charge used together with a noun? Is it better to put other adjectives before or after free of charge? Do you put an indefinite article before free of charge? How often is free of charge used with an indefinite article?
The free of charge financial aid should be explicitly specified in the source documents supporting a certain type of income received by a company.
The most idiomatic usage of 'free of charge' is at the end of a sentence. "I'll allow you to stay free of charge." "The cigars are free of charge." The phrase is rather clumsy outside of advertisements.
In place of 'free of charge,' there are single word alternatives with equivalent meanings. Complimentary and gratis work well. The word 'free' is also generally an acceptable alternative, although somewhat ambiguous. 'No-cost' also works well (suggested by Jim Reynolds in a comment to this answer).
As for your questions:
Do you write or say other adjectives before or after the adjective free of charge used together with a noun? If forced to use free of charge in combination with other adjectives, I would place free of charge last. Severely cumbersome adjectives such as this should be handled as such (or, more preferably, alone).
Is it better to put other adjectives before or after free of charge? Same as above.
Do you put an indefinite article before free of charge? Yes, see below.
How often is free of charge used with an indefinite article? Surprisingly (to me, at least), "a free of charge" is a more common phrase than "the free of charge." Thus, the indefinite article is more common than the definite article before 'free of charge.'
Correct answer by Coty Johnathan Saxman on July 29, 2021
It should be better written as a/the free-of-charge financial aid.
It does not matter if it is a definite, indefinite or free of any article preceding the phrase.
Usually, it is a good practice to hyphenate a phrase, when the phrase itself becomes an adjectival/adverbial phrase.
Examples of adjectival phrases
free-of-charge: Do you think you can simply come into this house and eat free-of-charge? The free-of-charge meal applies only to children younger than eight, duh. If I cater to everyone who comes into my restaurant expecting a free-of-charge meal, I would be bankrupt closing shop tomorrow.
no-money-down: The government of Lahore is offering an introductory no-money-down loan for people willing to buy houses in rebuilt towns devastated by the Taliban. According to govt officials, a no-money-down loan is one which you take possession of a house without placing any down-payment. The no-money-down scheme is not very popular at the moment.
use-it-or-lose-it: I have two use-it-or-lose-it holidays which I have to use before New Year's day. A use-it-or-lose-it holiday is for compensating non-Christians in America, who do not celebrate the Christian holidays in the American holiday conspiracy.
interest-free: She is applying for the interest-free loan offered to small business women entrepreneurs. Getting an interest-free loan is very helpful when starting up a small business.
BTW, what is free-of-charge financial aid? Did you mean interest-free? Or, did you mean free from being charged with admin and loan-agent's fees? No-money-down loan?
Answered by Blessed Geek on July 29, 2021
One commenter errs by stating that hyphens are required in the postpositional use of "free of charge": "Do you think you can simply come into this house and eat free-of-charge?" This should be: "Do you think you can simply come into this house and eat free of charge?" There is no potential ambiguity to prevent here, and in standard usage the phrase "free of charge" is not hyphenated when it appears after the word or words that it modifies. If it had to be hyphenated in this case, there would never be a case when the phrase may appear without hyphens. But the dictionary (for example, Merriam-Webster) lists the phrase without hyphens.
Answered by David M. Brown on July 29, 2021
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