Abstract
Let V denote a vector space over a field F and let A denote a fuzzy subspace of V over a fuzzy subfield K of F. Let X be a fuzzy subset of V such that X ⊆ A and let 〈X〉 denote the intersection of all fuzzy subspaces of V over K that contain X and are contained in A. We characterize the fuzzy subspace 〈X〉 of A over K. We use this result to introduce the concept of fuzzy freeness of a fuzzy subset X of V and characterize it in terms of linear independence in the usual sense.