"Diese Zeitung ist kostenlos."

Translation: This newspaper is free.

[nathanjohnson83]

I have seen 'gratis' used more than 'kostenlos.' Is this just in Austria or in Germany as well?

[christian]

I'd say both words are used equally often.

[surfreak]

Just FYI, northern Switzerland also uses 'gratis' almost exclusively

[nathanjohnson83]

thanks interesting to hear how the words are used across different countries

[liminal]

Gratis is Latin it means 'given in kindness' the word 'free' suggests there is no cost to the giver anyway so it has a very different meaning really. I could go on that according to the laws of thermodynamics nothing is 'free' and its a stupid word anyway.

[GuardianCiego]

It is also gratis in Spanish!! =D

[zbianca]

And in Portuguese :D

[anca1234]

And in Romanian :D

[jandresbar]

And in Norwegian haha

[eauxement]

And in Bulgarian :]

[CallMeAnja]

And in Italian!

[Hakan_Ahmad]

Indonesian is too, although it's derived from portuguese.

[4of92000]

Huh. Very funny about the whole thermodynamics thing, btw. XD

[Voroshilov1917]

"Costless" should have been accepted, I believe.

[eauxement]

yup, it would not though

[guyhoschke]

Sorry, there is no such word in English.

[JosephOlstad]

I learned free as umsonst. Any significant difference with kostenlos?

[Amazoona]

Why not priceless? :(

[christian]

That's a completely different word. The German for "priceless" is "unbezahlbar".

[Schorschi]

Priceless is something that is so expensive that it doesn't have a price tag. Quite the opposite of free/kostenlos.

[richardbk]

I seriously dislike the word kostenlos. I get the thing wrong every time. Can't seem to get a mental connection to the word free.

[Dragonaire]

Think "costless." It does not cost anything.

[Dragonaire]

I thought "diese" can mean "this" or "that"... If "diese" means "this", then how do you say "that".

[Schorschi]

This - dies

That - jenes

These - diese

Those - jene

[christian]

See hutcho66's comment.

[wilkommen]

I wrote is is a free newspaper. What's wrong with that?