| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
|
2. Style: Parallelism, Passives, Redundancy, and Wordiness
|
| § 18. free gift |
| What kind of gift isn’t free? The kind that comes with strings attached. The widespread offering of gifts as part of product promotions has given the free gift a meaning all its own. A free gift ought, therefore, to be offered without an obligation to test-drive a vehicle, enroll in a book club, or open a savings account. Ought. Maybe the real problem is in using the word gift to refer to something that entails an obligation. | 1 |
|
|
|
| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
