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Your're living in a building.

The building has a main door, and each household in the building has a same key to get through that door.

One day, you forgot to bring the key.

Is it correct to say "we have to wait for someone to get in so that we can have a free entry" or "we have to wait for someone to get in so that we can have a chance to get in" (but we repeat "get in" twice)

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The first sentence is wrong or at least questionable:

  • grammatically (we would say free entry, not a free entry)
  • phraseologically (we would say get free entry (24 mil Google hits) or obtain free entry, not have free entry (3 mil Google hits))
  • lexically (free entry is used only of places where you would normally have to pay to get in, like nightclubs or amusement parks.)

The second one makes sense but has various problems of style. You could instead say:

  • We've got to wait for someone to come back so that we can get in
  • We've got to wait for someone to come home so we can get in

or (including people coming out from the inside):

  • We've got to wait for someone to come out / come down / come through / come past [and open the door] so that we can get in

and similar.

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  • The building's rule: Noone is allowed to get int without a key
    – Tom
    Commented Dec 19, 2020 at 7:24
  • For the second sentence, as long as someone goes through the door, I can have a chance to get in. It could be someone go into the building from the outside or go out of the building from the inside. So, can we say "We've got to wait for someone to go through the door so we can get in"
    – Tom
    Commented Dec 19, 2020 at 7:28
  • Yes, I understand the rule. But yes, I should have added examples of someone coming from inside. Will edit.
    – legatrix
    Commented Dec 19, 2020 at 7:33

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