Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

you don't get something for nothing

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.24 in modern English

Syllables: you -don't get -some-thing -for noth-ing
IPA

47

Scrabble Score

29

Letters

6

Syllables

14

Unique Chars

Meaning

proverb

One cannot expect to receive some benefit if one does not pay for it in some way or does not face a counterbalancing hazard or harm.

Example Sentences

"There's half the fight won, first off." "Osterman bribed him, I suppose," observed Magnus. Annixter raised a shoulder vexatiously. "You've got to pay for what you get," he returned. "You don't get something for nothing, I guess.""
""You don't get something for nothing," said Richard Hannah, an analyst for Phillips & Drew, a London brokerage house. "For the 40 percent return, you take one bloody huge risk.""
"As the saying goes, you don't get something for nothing—especially not where sex is concerned. Just as the terrors of HIV followed the joys of the sexual revolution, so it seems that Pfizer's anti-impotence wonder drug, Viagra, carries with it more health risks than anyone suspected."
"Melanie Phillips, who defends the institution of marriage and is not keen to extend property rights to cohabiting couples, says: "The law is based on justice; justice requires that you don't get something for nothing. You don't claim rights if you don't enter into obligations.""

Inflected Forms

you can't get something for nothing (alternative) you don’t get owt for nowt (alternative)

Phrases

no pain, no gain the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet there's no such thing as a free lunch you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs you only get what you give

Frequently Paired Words

no pain, no gain the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet there's no such thing as a free lunch you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs you only get what you give

Questions

What does you don't get something for nothing mean?: One cannot expect to receive some benefit if one does not pay for it in some way or does not face a counterbalancing hazard or harm.

How to pronounce you don't get something for nothing

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