SELL Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

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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 cell let’s get started

okay let’s begin with the basic

definition of the verb cell cell 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 cell cells 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 cell is

to convince someone of something or to

convince someone about something to

persuade someone of something examples

you’ve 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 to sell someone on an idea or

to sell yourself to sell oneself as well

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 cell 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 bands 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

in the first meeting we talked about my

favorite band sold out depending on the

context that can mean the band’s 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 matter no compensation 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 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

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 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 sell 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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thanks very much for watching this

episode of new year

and we’ll see you again next time

bye-bye

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