It appears that sometimes, folks have a problem distinguishing “sell” from “sale”… and since they are both words dear to my heart, I thought I’d give a quick tour of when to use which word.
SELL is a verb. You sell something, or someone sells you another something. If you’re a retailer or a wholesaler, that’s your business: you sell stuff. You can also “sell someone on” an idea, a thought, a premise: She sold her mother on the idea that everyone skinny-dipped during the full moon. And you can talk about how popular an item is, as in: Plaid skirts sell day in and day out.
You can sell off, sell out, sell short (an old boyfriend, you realize, was someone you sold short when it turned out that he wasn’t such a lazy layabout after all and is now a handsome zillionaire) or sell down the river.
The only time sell is a noun is when it’s used something like this: Convincing her husband to loan her $100,000 to open a consignment shop was a hard sell, but she showed him what a wise idea it was when she sold $10,000 her first day in business.
Sale is a noun. It means the act of selling: There are cinnamon buns for sale at the bakery this morning. Or, as a lawyer would say: An agreement by which one of the contracting parties, called the seller, gives a thing and passes the title to it, in exchange for a certain price in current money, to the other party, who is called the buyer or purchaser, who, on his part, agrees to pay such price. Give that woman a cinnamon bun, quick.
There are garage sales and yard sales and tag sales and even basement sales. None of which, usually, sell garages, yards, tags or basements. Of course, the best sale is REsale, right?
Sale can also mean, and this is the definition dearest to consumers’ hearts, that the seller has reduced the price she is willing to accept on items she has for sale. She’s having a sale on shorts, or she’s having a BOGO* sale on shoes.
If you truly want to SELL a SALE which is necessary if you want stuff to sell like hotcakes, read Words that Sell! or 109 Promotion Ideas.
* BOGO = Buy One Get One sale.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 