sell out vs sell out of

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Grammar Geek  #480081  Fri, 22 Feb 08 02:19 AM

Isn't selling out our inventory of red shirts the same as selligng out of their home games?

 

  
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Barbara, who answers in American English.
Pter  #480089  Fri, 22 Feb 08 02:40 AM
Hoa Thai

 "The Rangers have sold out all eight of their home games."

Does that mean "all tickets of each of their home games are sold out"?  In that case, "sold out" refers to the tickets and "all" refers to the home games.  What if they have just one home game?
  
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Hoa Thai  #480186  Fri, 22 Feb 08 10:03 AM
Hi folks,

I certainly have no intention of hijacking this thread from Tuong Van. However, there seems to be a miscommunication, which must be of my own doing. Please allow me to reset this by explaining what I think was happening:

First, I stated that 'sell out of' was good with 'every unit' and 'sell out' was good with 'group' concept and showed some examples of when the phrasal verb ‘sell out’ goes with / without the preposition ‘of’.

Next, Amy said 'sell out our inventory' was awkward and offered various structural alternatives. (NOTE: I was not too sure whether she meant “‘we must use ‘of’ “ OR the phrase was awkward in its nature).

She then commented that 'sell out all our stocks of T-shirts' was event more awkward. But for this example, she  made a slight change in the sentence by adding 'of' -  'sell out all of our stocks of T-shirts', then said that one should not to use both 'out' and 'all of' together because of redundancy. (NOTE: Right there, I completely missed the connection. Why did she add the preposition ‘of’ then went on about redundancy?)

Of course, I did follow up with the 'Rangers' question, in which 'sold out all' was shown, hoping for the reconnection. Although, there was no question that the phrase ‘sold out’ was used for (the game tickets), my intention was to see if Amy would add the preposition ‘of’ again, because I was not sure what went on in her mind earlier.

Finally, Barbara joined in with:  “Isn't selling out our inventory of red shirts the same as selling out of their home games?” Interestingly, she used both ‘selling out’ and ‘selling out of’. She also used ‘selling out our inventory’, the 'a little awkward' phrase according to Amy.

So we now are back to square one.

By the way, according to Avangi, ‘sell out of (something)’ and ‘sell out (something)’ are interchangeable in the example that Tuong Van asked for an opinion.

I added that ‘sell out all’ is OK, but not ‘sell out of all’.

I hope we are now together again.Smile

  
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Best Regards - Hoa Thai
Yankee  #480224  Fri, 22 Feb 08 12:49 PM
Hi Hoa Thai

There were a number of details that I considered in my last post.  These included the following:

- Sold out used strictly as a verb vs sold out used like an adjective
- Verb tense
- Using sold vs sold out (particularly in combination with the word 'all')
- Word order (i.e. Does the sentence begin with that which was sold, or does it begin with the person who did the selling?)
- If the word 'all' was used, how exactly? (i.e. as a noun? pronoun? adjective? adverb?)

To me, there is more that needs to be considered than just the question of whether 'all' or 'all of' is better or more typical.

She then commented that 'sell out all our stocks of T-shirts' wasevent more awkward. But for this example, she  made a slightchange in the sentence by adding 'of' -  'sell out all ofour stocks of T-shirts', then said that one should not to use both 'out'and 'all of' together because of redundancy. (NOTE: Right there, I completelymissed the connection. Why did she add the preposition ‘of’ then went on aboutredundancy?)
There are a couple of problems in that quote:

- Neither you nor I used the word 'stocks' (i.e. plural)
- You have ignored the beginning of the sentence, but I didn't.
Though I did indeed prefer 'all of' in the phrase "all of our stock of T-shirts", the focus of my comment about the sentence as a whole.  I was not focused on whether 'all' or 'all of' was better.  My comment focused on whether 'all' (or 'all of') should be used at all in combination with the way 'sold out' was used.
  
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Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain
Hoa Thai  #480538  Sat, 23 Feb 08 03:00 AM
Hi Amy,

I understand you and your approach to teaching now.

Thank you 

  
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