Difference between sale and sales

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Englishlearner14

#437662 Thu, 01 Nov 07 04:25 PM

What is the difference between "sale" and "sales"
Please give few examples.

Thanks.

Englishlearner14

Joined on Thu, Nov 1 2007

New Member (01)

Difference between

Tidus

#437664 Thu, 01 Nov 07 04:29 PM

Sales is plural of sale.

Tidus

Joined on Mon, Nov 27 2006

England

Full Member (360)

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JT2010

#437724 Thu, 01 Nov 07 06:25 PM

The employee only made one sale today because he only had a single customer.

The employee made many sales today because the store was very busy.

JT2010

Joined on Thu, Nov 1 2007

United States

New Member (20)

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Anonymous

#437786 Thu, 01 Nov 07 11:19 PM

"Sales is plural of sale."

So is a 'sale engineer' sells only one item; and a "sales engineer" sells more than one?

Anonymous

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JT2010

#437814 Fri, 02 Nov 07 12:49 AM

Sales engineer is the correct version. A sales engineer is someone that assists an actual salesperson with the technical aspects of the product they are selling, such as with computers or computer software.

So, in this case, sales is plural because the engineer works on more than one sale. Sale engineer isn't the proper usage.

JT2010

Difference between, Plurals

Anonymous

#437817 Fri, 02 Nov 07 01:14 AM

JT2010 wrote:
Sales engineer is the correct version. A sales engineer is someone that assists an actual salesperson with the technical aspects of the product they are selling, such as with computers or computer software.

So, in this case, sales is plural because the engineer works on more than one sale. Sale engineer isn't the proper usage.

What if the engineer's job is to assist in one and only one item? Would 'sale engineer' be acceptable to clarify such a fact?
How about in a case, where an employee is teasing his coworker, calling him 'sale engineer'? Would that get his message across or should he calls his friend 'an one-item sales engineer' or ' a singleton sales engineer' ?

Anonymous

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Grammar Geek

#437822 Fri, 02 Nov 07 01:32 AM

Sales is used for the abstract noun meaning "relating to selling." Even if the person is responsible only for one product or one customers, the title is still sales engineer.

You could, I suppose, tease a co-worker by calling him a "sale engineer" if he had only one client, but you would be playing with language in doing so.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,619)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Abstract nouns, Difference between, Nouns

Anonymous

#437828 Fri, 02 Nov 07 01:46 AM

Grammar Geek wrote:
Sales is used for the abstract noun meaning "relating to selling." Even if the person is responsible only for one product or one customers, the title is still sales engineer.

You could, I suppose, tease a co-worker by calling him a "sale engineer" if he had only one client, but you would be playing with language in doing so.

Thank you!
That is perfect. Answering with 'pluralization' alone would lack the depth that might cause ESL students to possibly make a mistake.

Anonymous

Abstract nouns, Difference between, Grammar, Nouns

Osee

#438062 Fri, 02 Nov 07 08:20 PM

So, JT2010, according to your logic here, we should use "students math club" instead of "student math club," and "Women Union" instead of "Woman Union," should we? Thanks.

JT2010 wrote:
Sales engineer is the correct version. A sales engineer is someone that assists an actual salesperson with the technical aspects of the product they are selling, such as with computers or computer software.

So, in this case, sales is plural because the engineer works on more than one sale. Sale engineer isn't the proper usage.

Osee

Joined on Mon, Jan 8 2007

Canada

Regular Member (681)

Truths are hard to prove, rumors are easy to make.

Difference between, Plurals

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