If so, my analysis amounts to a rule in search of actual usage—a prescription rather than a description. In any event, the impressive rise of "free of" against "free from" over the past 100 years suggests that the English-speaking world has become more receptive to using "free of" in place of "free from" during that period.
The choice of prepositions depends upon the temporal context in which you're speaking. "On ~ afternoon" implies that the afternoon is a single point in time; thus, that temporal context would take the entire afternoon as one of several different afternoons, or in other words, one would use "on" when speaking within the context of an entire week. "In ~ afternoon" suggests that the afternoon is ...
I want to make a official call and ask the other person whether he is free or not at that particular time. I think asking, “Are you free now?” does't sound formal. So, are there any alternatives to...
2 The two-word sign "take free" in English is increasingly used in Japan to offer complimentary publications and other products. Is the phrase, which is considered kind of trendy in Japan, also used in English-speaking countries with the same meaning? Does it make sense to native English speakers?
With the advent of the free software movement, license schemes were created to give developers more freedom in terms of code sharing, commonly called open source or free and open source software.
In the context such as "free press", it means libre from censorship, "gluten-free" means libre from gluten and so on. Then there is "free stuff", why is the same word used?
Similarly, “free education” is funded by the state (which is ultimately financed by taxpayers) and taught in state-run schools called state schools whereas schools that charge tuition fees are termed private schools. A private school in the US typically means fee-taking. Confusingly, in the UK, they are known as public schools.
Use - free when a sentence refers to something that was never present, for example a carefree child. I use the denotation because while -free tends to have positive connotations, -less can have either positive or negative connotations. But using the above rules based on context works in most situations.
