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hi everybody welcome back to know your
verbs my name is alicia and in this
lesson we're going to talk about the
verb sell let's get started
okay let's begin with the basic
definition of the verb sell sell means
to give money in exchange for an item or
a service to sell something examples
i sold my car
we're selling our house
let's look at the conjugations for this
verb
present
sell
sells
past
sold
past participle sold
progressive selling
okay so now let's talk about an
additional meaning for this verb
so a different meaning for the verb sell
is to convince someone of something or
to convince someone about something to
persuade someone of something examples
you sold me on this idea
he's terrible at selling himself he
always fails interviews
so to sell is like to convince someone
of something we see that in the first
example you sold me on this idea you
convinced me
that this was a good idea in other words
you've persuaded me about this thing so
you were successful in convincing me
something of something that you want me
to believe you sold me in the second
example sentence he's terrible at
selling himself so to sell yourself in
that case means to convince someone else
that you're a good choice or you're a
good option to sell yourself in this way
in this context means you're trying to
convince someone persuade someone that
maybe you're a good candidate for a job
for example so this meaning is like to
convince someone of something usually
that something is good really to
convince uh to sell someone on an idea
or to sell yourself to sell oneself as
well okay
so there are a lot of variations that i
want to talk about for this verb now so
let's look at some variations for the
verb sell the first variation is to sell
out to sell out actually there are two
different meanings for this so let's
take a look at the first one the first
meaning of to sell out means to
compromise for the sake of an advantage
so this is often used in like arts and
entertainment so an artist will
compromise his or her work in order to
get some advantage usually money
examples
my favorite band sold out many
politicians have sold out over the last
few years
so both of these examples refer to
someone changing their artistic
viewpoint or changing their opinions
changing their behavior in order to
receive some advantage in the first
example sentence my favorite band sold
out it sounds like the band stopped
doing something that made them unique
and instead for example joined a label
or joined a company and they are now
following the company's orders in
exchange for money in the second example
sentence politicians have sold out it's
like the politicians have changed their
opinions or their behaviors in exchange
for some money or some kind of
compensation so this is changing your
ideas for advantage let's move on to the
second variation for how to use sell out
to sell out means to run out of
inventory so you sell everything you
sell completely all the stock all the
inventory of something there's nothing
left examples
we sold out of shirts this morning
they're worried they're going to sell
out of products
so to sell out means to have nothing
left of anything so one point of caution
to sell out
while there are these two different
meanings of compromising your artistic
ideas and not having any inventory of a
product because you've sold everything
in cases like the first example sentence
and the first meaning we talked about my
favorite band sold out uh depending on
the context that can mean the band sold
out of concert tickets for example if a
band or an artist is coming to a city or
some other performer
is coming to do an event
that can refer to like the event
selling out or
maybe a product offered by the band
selling out so listen carefully to the
context if it's a criticism of the
artist or the performer it's probably
referring to the artist compromising
their ideas if it's talking about like
an event a performance and like no
tickets being left or no products being
left then it's probably about no
inventory so pay attention to the
context here to understand the correct
meaning of sell out in these cases okay
let's continue on to the next variation
which is to sell someone or something
short to sell someone short to sell
something short this expression means to
not consider something as valuable as it
actually is
examples
don't sell yourself short
don't sell your friend short i think he
has hidden talents
so you can see that i'm using don't at
the beginning of both of these examples
we commonly use don't with this
expression don't sell yourself short
don't sell someone else short means
don't devalue yourself or don't devalue
another person or another thing in other
words explain the true value of yourself
or explain the true value of that thing
don't sell yourself short don't sell
your friend short so recognize the
actual value in the thing you're
discussing the next variation is to sell
one's soul to the devil so sometimes
we'll drop this to the devil we use the
expression to sell your soul or to sell
one's soul
this expression means to agree to do
something which is usually negative in
exchange for some kind of advantage
usually money or some other kind of i
don't know compensation um so examples
of this she sold her soul when she
signed the contract
he's going to sell his soul in exchange
for fame
so in these example sentences we see
that someone has made a decision that is
very serious we know that because we see
the expression sell your soul or sell
one's soul so when we imagine like a
soul is kind of like the core perhaps of
of a human being and we're selling it
it's like the most important thing we
could sell it's like the most valuable
thing we have so to sell it implies a
very important or a big decision in the
first example sentence when it says she
sold her soul when she signed the
contract it's like she lost a key part
of herself she gave a key part of
herself to this company perhaps when she
signed a contract in exchange for some
kind of advantage in the second example
sentence
the he in the example he wants fame and
he's going to sell his soul he will give
something
in order to get famous in other words so
these are sort of situations that also
imply a negative thing that the other
person has agreed to do so maybe in the
second example sentence he's agreed to
do something negative or something
that's uh suspicious in exchange for
fame so there's there's a negative
nuance here for sure
so those are a few different ways that
you can use the verb sell i hope that
you found something new of course if you
want to check out some other ways to use
cell i highly recommend checking out a
dictionary
of course if you have any questions or
comments or if you want to practice
making example sentences please feel
free to do so in the comment section of
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watching this episode of know your verbs
and we'll see you again next time
bye-bye
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