word choice - "Pay-for" vs. "for-pay"


Is pay-for or for-pay the correct word? For example, which of these two sentences is correct?




  • This is a pay-for product.

  • This is a for-pay product.




Answer



The usage stats from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC) look as follows:


            COCA    BNC      

for-pay      22      0
pay-for       0      0

In other words, pay-for is not an option on either side of the pond, while for-pay is only used in American English.


The most common collocates are services (3) and version (2). There is not a single cite for a for-pay product, but then again the sample size is very small.


My personal advice: while for-pay is self-explanatory enough to be used in informal contexts, in formal writing you might wish to reword. There isn't a single one-size-fits-all adjective; depending on context anything from commercial to premium might or might not work. You might have to restructure the entire phrase ("available for a fee" or some such).


See also: What is the opposite of “free” as in “free of charge”?


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