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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