I have a silly question that's been stuck in my head for a little bit. There was a movie that came out a little while ago called, "Heaven is for real" … and something about the word "for" in that title bothered me. I've heard the expression several more times about something being "for real" vs just "real" …. what is the point of the word "for" in that context?
Something about the usage of the words "for real" makes me feel like the phrase is trying to convince me (in kind of a common folksy kind of way, almost childlike way) that I should be convinced of somethings "realness". (You might disagree with this…) but some part of me feels like that using the word "for" in "X is for real" is an attempt to manipulate the listener into validating the claim. Is that unfair?
I guess my questions are: What is the proper grammar concerning "X is for real" vs "X is real" ??? And my second question is what is your interpretation of the word "for" in the term "X is for real"… why use the word "for" in that context?
Sorry if this is a silly weirdo question… thank you for any comments or answers.
Best Answer
For real indeed has a kind of slangy/childish connotation, which I'm sure is why it was used in the title of that movie (a quick Google search reveals that the film is about a four-year-old who has a near-death experience).
However, it also does not mean the same thing as real: if something is real, it exists, while if something is for real, it is legitimate.
Merriam-Webster backs up this adjectival sense of for real (definition 3.2 and 3.3 at that link):
To be fair, that dictionary also gives genuine as one definition of just plain "real", but I do think that "for real" is much more about legitimacy than "real", to the point that there is a definite difference in meaning. Consider the following examples (mine, this time):
If I were looking at a plastic replica of a pizza, I could say A but not B. In contrast, if I had just been given a pizza that I was told was from a famous restaurant, but in fact looked very unappetizing, I could say B but not A.
Of course I contrived that example to demonstrate the difference in meaning. To return to your original question, Heaven is real and Heaven is for real do indeed mean pretty much the same thing. But my point was to show that real and for real are not always interchangeable.
As for the grammar part of your question, I don't think for real is grammatically remarkable - there are other structures of the form "[Noun] is for [adjective]", e.g. This coffee is for free.