Sth. sells well or is sold well?
From my knowledge about passive voice, we should say "something is sold well here"
However, I see a lot of people saying or writing on the web that "something sells well...."
People sell things. Things should "be sold" by people. Why things can just "sell" without being passive voice?
Top answer
It is a feature of the verb "sell" that its subject can be a person ("he sold the house") or the thing itself ("the house sold quickly"). Verbs like this, where the transitive object can become the intransitive subject with essentially similar meaning, are sometimes called "ergative" verbs. There are quite a few of them in English.
- It is a feature of the verb "sell" that its subject can be a person ("he sold the house") or the thing itself ("the house sold quickly").
- Verbs like this, where the transitive object can become the intransitive subject with essentially similar meaning, are sometimes called "ergative" verbs.
- There are quite a few of them in English.
- org/english-grammar-reference/ergative-verbs .
- kenny1999 "something is sold well here" This is hardly possible.
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It is a feature of the verb "sell" that its subject can be a person ("he sold the house") or the thing itself ("the house sold quickly"). Verbs like this, where the transitive object can become the intransitive subject with essentially similar meaning, are sometimes called "ergative" verbs. There are quite a few of them in English. For more examples see
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