Here the Hom groups must be taken over ; the printed subscript in this part has no defined coefficient ring. For an arbitrary module , form the free module
and define a module homomorphism by . Each element of has finite support, so this prescription extends uniquely and is well-defined. It is surjective because every is the image of . Thus every module is a quotient of a free module.
Let . The short exact sequence and the defining exactness condition for a projective module make
surjective. Lift to a map . Then , so is injective. Every has the decomposition
whose first term lies in and second lies in . If , applying gives , so the intersection is zero. Consequently
This is a split short exact sequence and proves that projective modules are direct summands of free modules, including modules that are not finitely generated.