For life means for the rest of your life, for ever. People use it about friendships, skills, jobs or consequences that stay with a person to the end: friends for life. In official language it describes a lifetime ban or sentence: banned for life. The phrase is neutral and suits both speaking and writing.
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friends / a job / a member + for life; banned / scarred + for life; keep + something + for life
- They met on a train in Italy and stayed friends for life.
- My grandfather expected a job for life at the factory, but I've already changed careers twice.
- Learning to swim as a child gives you a skill you keep for life.
What changed
First versionWe met at university and became friends for all life.
RevisionWe met at university and became friends for life.
For all life is not used in English. The fixed phrase is shorter: for life, with no all and no article.
All my life means “my whole life up to now”: I've lived here all my life. For life looks forward: from now until the end. A close alternative, for the rest of my life, means “until the end of my life”: I'll remember this day for the rest of my life.
Your turn
After the doping scandal, the cyclist was banned from racing ___.
Show the answer
for life — The ban starts after the scandal and lasts for ever, so for life. All his life would mean he had always been banned from racing, from the very beginning, which contradicts the meaning.
Write about a skill that you think stays with a person for life. Say when and where you learned it.
I learned to ride a bike in my grandparents' village when I was six, and it's a skill you keep for life.
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