This entry is one in a series that tackles issues of proper word use and grammar in English.
This is a didactic entry but it is really getting on my nerves how often people confuse “complimentary” and “complementary.”
If I say nice things about you, then I am giving you a compliment and so I am being complimentary (note the “i” in the middle). If you and I have different skills that make us work together in a more complete way than we could do individually, we complement each other. So we are complementary (note the “e” in the middle). See “complimentary” and “complementary” at Merriam-Webster for more information.
The version to use when you mean that something is free is “complimentary.”
I’ll leave it to you to guess which form was used in the article I read and which form should have been used.
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