Tuesday, May 15, 2007

rein, reign, go away

I was reading a blog earlier today and she said “…. I gave him free reign”.

I always thought it was “free rein” as in giving a horse free rein.

But I see how “reign” could work as well.

So which is it, “free rein” or “free reign”?

And now, after typing repeated drafts, both phrases have lost all meaning.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that 'him' as in her husband? Son? Brother?

Do any males need free rei(g)n?

Isn't that the real issue here?

Ami said...

So, because I'm a nerd and I like to look things up, I found this (scroll down to the middle) which says that "free reign" is a common mistake, but "free rein" is correct. This is why foreigners don't learn English. It's too damned complicated!

Anonymous said...

My world just turned upside down!