Could you tell me about "sell someone〜"
About the expression "sell someone 〜".
Has the guy already sold his car?
(1) The guy that sold Jack his car appears to be honest.
(2) The guy that sold his car to Jack appears to be honest.

In (2) sentence, I understand that the guy has already sold his car to John.
How about (1) ?
Did the guy already sell the car to John or just try to sell the car?

Thank you.

Question

Could you tell me about "sell someone〜"
About the expression "sell someone 〜".
Has the guy already sold his car?
(1) The guy that sold Jack his car appears to be honest.
(2) The guy that sold his car to Jack appears to be honest.

In (2) sentence, I understand that the guy has already sold his car to John.
How about (1) ?
Did the guy already sell the car to John or just try to sell the car?

Thank you.

Answer

(1) and (2) both express the same thing. If either of the sentences had something like "...the guy who wanted to sell his car to Jack...", there'd be a difference.

Answer

Both sentences mean the same. The guy sold his car. Jack bought the car.

Answer

In both he has SOLD it c:

You can tell because they both say SOLD not SELL. c:

Answer

They both mean the same: the guy has sold his car to John. The verb "to sell" may have two objects, direct and indirect, at the same time. So there are two constructions which have the same meaning but different oder of objects:
1) to sell the car TO John     (the verb + direct object + TO + indirect object)
2) to sell John          the car (the verb + indirect object       + direct object)

Answer

Thank you for your answer. Now I've got it^^.

Answers · 6

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