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In this sentence "We do have free will," is "free-will" a compound noun? And if so, is "free" an adjective?

I'm talking about the theological concept of "free will". Which, in some cases, you read "free-will", always as a single term.

This is not a question about the meaning of this expression, but the grammar classification of the words that compounds it. Of course the meaning and the context need to be taken in consideration, but it can be known by the wikipedia article. But I'm asking the experts that know the meaning and it's common use, to help me classifying grammatically "free will", giving the classification of "free" and "will", within that context.

Mitch
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Filipe Merker
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  • Not a duplicate, but a related question When is it necessary to use a hyphen in writing a compound word?. When did you see "free-will" under what context? Unless you specify it, it would not be easy to get an answer. –  Dec 05 '15 at 17:46
  • "Free" means "unrestricted" or "uncontrolled", in the sense that a feral horse would roam "free". (And "free-will" would normally only be used when the term is used as an adjective, as in "free-will offering".) – Hot Licks Dec 05 '15 at 18:16
  • Hot Licks, i don't know if your comment is for me, but i'm not after the meaning of the expression, i know it. I'm asking for the grammar classification of it, taking, of course, the common use of the term in consideration. – Filipe Merker Dec 05 '15 at 18:40
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    "Free" is an adjective, applied to the noun "will". In keeping with normal rules, a hyphen is added if "free-will" is used as an adjective phrase vs a noun phrase. – Hot Licks Dec 05 '15 at 19:05
  • You could call free will a compound noun. But it's generally pronounced as an adjective+noun combination. (As determined by the position of the stress.) – Peter Shor Jun 27 '16 at 11:50
  • Most major online dictionaries class "free will" as a noun. The inclusion of the hyphen when the term is used to premodify a head noun tends to show that this is warranted. // The compound is quite transparent; 'free' meaning 'not subject to outside control'. // If the compound noun status is accepted, 'free' is not an individual word. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 27 '16 at 12:45
  • It is unclear what you're asking. Your title asks for what 'free' means, but your question content and later comments make it sound like all you care about is the part of speech. But then your comment on a deleted answer, which answers the part of speech, make it sound like you don't want the part of speech. Can you elaborate what it is exactly that you want? – Mitch Jun 27 '16 at 13:14

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It's a simple adjective-noun phrase, grammatically equivalent to saying "We have red hair".

Free means "Unrestrained" and "will" means "choice" or "choices" in this context. There's really nothing more complicated than that.

It's equivalent to saying "We have unrestrained choices", ie "We can choose to do whatever we want." It's not a compound.

Max Williams
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