Could you please take a glance at this?

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1. Last year's Digital tablets are currently on sale WHENEVER they are sold,
though some electronic chains may have better discounts than others.

2. Last year's Digital tablets are currently on sale WHEREVER they are sold,
though some electronic chains may have better discounts than others.

Could you please tell me which of the two sounds more natural to native speakers?
I was told the 2nd one is better, and I'd like to know whether most people also think so.

Thanks for reading.
I'd appreciate any comment.

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 2,452 • Replies: 54

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View best answer, chosen by SMickey

#2 is correct.

2 Replies

@chai2,

With 'currently' removed, would the first one still sound rather awkward?

0 Replies

@chai2,

I mean, is it okay to say,

"The books are on sale whenever they are sold." ?

Does this still sound awkard?

2 Replies

@SMickey,

Forget about "most people". The first one looks nonsensical. It brings to mind the old joke. "Bananas are 10 cents each, but we haven't got any".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDd8shcLvHI

1 Reply

@SMickey,

Quote:

mean, is it okay to say,

"The books are on sale whenever they are sold." ?

Does this still sound awkard

You didn't ask me, but to me it does. It's also not clear what you're trying to say. Possibilities (depending on what you intend to convey):

1. No one will buy these books unless they are sold at a discount.

2. Where available, these books can be bought at a discounted price.

Using "sale" with "sold" seems to repetitive.

PS: Looking back at the original post, you seem to want to say something like: Since they are outdated, they can be bought at a discount, if available, although the amount of the discount may vary.

2 Replies

@layman,

I suggested:

Quote:

Since they are outdated, they can be bought at a discount, if available, although the amount of the discount may vary.

Instead of saying "if available" you could probably substitute either "when" or "where" for "if."

I would choose when, myself.

0 Replies

@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

1. Last year's Digital tablets are currently on sale WHENEVER they are sold,
though some electronic chains may have better discounts than others.

2. Last year's Digital tablets are currently on sale WHEREVER they are sold,
though some electronic chains may have better discounts than others.

Could you please tell me which of the two sounds more natural to native speakers?
I was told the 2nd one is better, and I'd like to know whether most people also think so.

Thanks for reading.
I'd appreciate any comment.

It's probably a good idea to separate the concepts of 'grammatically correct' and 'acceptable.' Logically and grammatically, #1 is correct, but not very acceptable because of its awkwardness. #2 is fine as it is, except that in neither sentence do you need to capitalize the 'd' in 'digital.'

1 Reply

@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

I mean, is it okay to say,

"The books are on sale whenever they are sold." ?

Does this still sound awkard?

It is redundant. You are saying the books are on sale wherever they are on sale. Of course they are! So what? What are you trying to say?

2 Replies

@contrex,

Oh my god.
Thank you for your reply.

Let me ask you something first.

Is 'on sale' the same as 'for sale'?
For my whole life, I've thought if you're selling something it's for sale,
whereas it's on sale if you lower the price.

Am I wrong?

The reason I figured the sentence 'The books are on sale whenever they're sold' could possibly make sense was that I understood it as 'The books are sold at a lower price whenever they are sold.', and then the latter is not nonsensical.

All my confusion comes from misunderstanding the usage of 'on sale' and 'for sale'.

BTW, I found a couple of instances where 'on sale' is understood as 'at a lower price.'.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+sale

Well.. Is the meaning of it slightly different from areas to areas?

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

SMickey wrote:

I mean, is it okay to say,

"The books are on sale whenever they are sold." ?

Does this still sound awkard?

It is redundant. You are saying the books are on sale wherever they are on sale. Of course they are! So what? What are you trying to say?

I have to respectfully disagree. When books are 'on sale,' they are being sold for a reduced price. When they are 'sold,' they're simply on the shelves, available for purchase.

1 Reply

@FBM,

Thank you for your reply, FBM.

As far as I know 'on sale' has something to do with 'lowered price',
while 'for sale' is related with 'the act of selling something'.

So, if something is on sale, I figured, the price of it is reduced
and if something is for sale, I thought, the ower of it is trying to sell it and
whether the price is lowered or not isn't clear.

With that in my mind, I made up a sentence :
The books are on sale whenever they are sold,
whose meaning I intended was,

The books are sold at a lower price every time they are sold.

From the comments of the people here, I could sense the sentence I made up doesn't make sense.

Now, would it be okay to conclude that 'on sale' is not referring to any lowered price?

http://www.yourdictionary.com/on-sale

From the site above, its meaning seems to vary depending on the region.

Would the sentence I made up possibly be considered okay in the US,
not in UK?

How would 'on sale' generally be understood?
I'd really really love to see your comment.

1 Reply

@layman,

Right. If only I was better at English, I could've described in a much better way what I was curious about. I'm still trying hard and good people just like you make me feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
Thank you for your concern and reply. I appreciate it.

0 Replies

@fresco,

Thanks. I enjoyed the video a lot.
Now I think I can sense what was wrong with the sentence I showed above.

Thank you Smile

0 Replies

@FBM,

FBM wrote:

When books are 'on sale,' they are being sold for a reduced price. When they are 'sold,' they're simply on the shelves, available for purchase.

That may be true in US English, but in British English, the usual meaning of 'on sale' is merely 'available to buy', with no implication of any price reduction.

Oxford English Dictionaries:

On sale

1 Offered for purchase:

The November issue is on sale now

Extra copies of the current issue will go on sale in Easons in June as a test case for the second issue.

The full version of this article can be seen in the December issue of Tatler, on sale this week

Videos of the night are still on sale and can be purchased by contacting Betty Sweeney.

2 North American

Offered for purchase at a reduced price:

The crash put stocks on sale by slashing prices

1 Reply

@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

Thank you for your reply, FBM.

As far as I know 'on sale' has something to do with 'lowered price',
while 'for sale' is related with 'the act of selling something'.

So, if something is on sale, I figured, the price of it is reduced
and if something is for sale, I thought, the ower of it is trying to sell it and
whether the price is lowered or not isn't clear.

With that in my mind, I made up a sentence :
The books are on sale whenever they are sold,
whose meaning I intended was,

The books are sold at a lower price every time they are sold.

From the comments of the people here, I could sense the sentence I made up doesn't make sense.

Now, would it be okay to conclude that 'on sale' is not referring to any lowered price?

http://www.yourdictionary.com/on-sale

From the site above, its meaning seems to vary depending on the region.

Would the sentence I made up possibly be considered okay in the US,
not in UK?

How would 'on sale' generally be understood?
I'd really really love to see your comment.

I think you found the solution at the link to the dictionary. Good work! There are differences between American and British Englishes in this case. I'm writing from an American perspective. Now that I know the British English convention, I can see how it would not make sense to them.

Quote:

With that in my mind, I made up a sentence :
The books are on sale whenever they are sold,
whose meaning I intended was,

The books are sold at a lower price every time they are sold.

Your sentence and interpretation of it are fine in AmE, but not in BrE, as far as I can tell.

0 Replies

@contrex,

Yes, I learned that just now. Now it all makes sense.

0 Replies

In British English we say things like "reduced" or "on special offer" which seems to be an exact equivalent of the North American "on sale". E.g.:

Cucumbers are reduced (or on special offer) in many supermarkets this week.

1 Reply

@contrex,

We sometimes use those and/or similar expressions, but 'on sale' is most common, in my experience. I'm glad to have learned (learnt?) about this difference between BrE and AmE. It might turn out to be useful in class someday.

2 Replies

@FBM,

We use the phrase 'having a sale' or 'sale item' to indicate something is at a lower price, but saying something is on sale just means it's available.

Eg. Carpet Warehouse is having a 24 hour sale. Sale items include Axminster carpets, all sale items were previously on sale at for least twice as much as they cost today.

2 Replies

Could you please take a glance at this?

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