Writing Tips
http://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Institutional Links
-
Translation Bureau
Language Portal of Canada
-
TERMIUM Plus®
-
Index F
- face off
- faceoff
- face-off
- facilitate
- facilitator
- facsimile
- fact (1)
- fact (2)
- faculty
- fall
- false cause
- false dichotomy
- false dilemma
- Famous Five
- Farsi
- farther
- faulty comparisons
- faulty parallelism
- favour
- favourable
- favouritism
- fax
- faze
- febri-
- feel bad
- feel badly
- female
- Fenno-
- ferri-
- ferro-
- fête de la Reine
- few
- fewer
- fiber
- fibre
- figuratively
- Filipino
- financial
- financing
- Finno-
- first (1)
- first (2)
- firstly
- First Nation(s) (Linguistic recommendation from the Translation Bureau)
- first two
- fiscal
- fiscal year
- flack
- flair
- flak
- flak-catcher
- flammable
- flare
- flare out
- flare up
- flare-up
- flaunt
- flesh out
- fleur-de-lis
- fleur-de-lys
- flier
- flori-
- floriography
- flounder
- flout
- flu
- flue
- flush out
- fluvi-
- fluvio-
- flyer
- focus
- following
- follow up on
- follow-up to
- follow up with
- foot
- forbear
- forbid (someone) to
- fore-
- forebear
- forecast
- forego
- foregoing
- foregone
- foreign imports
- foreseeable
- foreword
- for free
- forgo
- former
- for same
- for the benefit of
- for the duration of
- for the reason that
- forthwith
- forward
- forwards
- founder (1)
- founder (2)
- fragment
- Franco-
- Franco-Albertan
- Franco-Manitoban
- Franco–Ontarian
- Francophone
- Franco-Prince Edward Islander
- Franco-Saskatchewanian
- Franco-Yukon
- Franco-Yukoner
- Fredericton
- Frederictoner
- Frederictonian
- free
- free from
- free of
- free of charge
- French
- french
- French-speaking Yukoner
- French typographical rules: capitalization
- French typography: abbreviations
- French typography: italics
- French typography: numerical expressions
- French typography: word division
- Frobisher Bay
- fruct-
- fructi-
- fully justified margins
- fulsome
- fun
- funding
- further
- furthermore
- future plans
Proactive Disclosure
Important notice
Writing Tips has been archived and won’t be updated before it is permanently deleted.
For the most up-to-date content, please consult Writing Tips Plus, which combines content from Writing Tips and The Canadian Style. And don’t forget to update your bookmarks!
Search and Functionalities Area
free from, free of
The expressions free from and free of both refer to being delivered from something.
As a general rule, use free from when it can be replaced by "released from" in a sentence.
- The best thing about vacations is being free from (released from) the daily grind.
Use free of when it can be replaced by "relieved of."
- The patient has been free (relieved of the pain) of headaches for several weeks.
Choosing between the prepositions from and of is sometimes a question of interpretation. For example, one may be free from the daily grind (i.e. released from it) or free of the daily routine (i.e. relieved of it), depending on the writer’s point of view.
© Public Services and Procurement Canada, 2025
TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank
Writing tools – Writing Tips
A product of the Translation Bureau
