It was sold vs it has been sold

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. 'It was sold' is used to describe a past action without a specific time reference, while 'It has been sold' is used to indicate a recent action with relevance to the present.

Last updated: April 08, 2024 • 1259 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to describe a past action without a specific time reference.

"It was sold"

Use 'it was sold' when referring to a past event of selling something without specifying the exact time it occurred.

Examples:

The car was sold last week.
The house was sold to a young couple.
The painting was sold at an auction.

Show examples from the web [+]

It was sold thanks to you.
It was sold to my forebears.
It was sold under the marque BD, thus perpetuating the Breitfeld-Daněk identity.
It was sold in 2000 to T-Online International, Deutsche Telekom's Internet subsidiary for 550 million euros.
It was sold to the prominent aristocratic Malvezzi family.
It was sold to a private developer, Barry Gilligan in 2003.
It was sold by some company named brokerage investments, And before that, it was purchased by arcmod limited.
It was sold in the United Kingdom from 2000 until 2001.
It was sold at auction (1990) for record price of $82.5 million.
It was sold by the us military along with lots of its friends to,
It was sold to Florence in 1411 and, entered the sixteenth part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, he followed its fate.
It was sold for cable TV in much of the world, and was released in theatres in France in early 2017.
It was sold by the church, very likely in 1781, and certainly by 1785, when it was bought by Gavin Hamilton, who took it to England.
It was sold to the count Pirro Visconti Borromeo, but the first works of improvement were made by the Canarisi and, at half of the 1800's, by the prince Emilio Barbiano di Belgioioso.
We're checking serial numbers, trying to find out where it was sold.
All they could confirm is that it was sold in Chicago.
In 1964 it was sold to the Belgian state.
During the French Revolution, it was sold as national property.
Definitively abandoned after the unification of Italy, in 1877 it was sold to private individuals.
Manufacturer gave me the big box store where it was sold.

Alternatives:

it got sold
it was purchased
it was bought
it was acquired
it changed ownership

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate a recent action of selling something with relevance to the present.

"it has been sold"

Use 'it has been sold' when referring to a recent event of selling something that has implications for the current situation.

Examples:

The house has been sold, so we need to find a new place to live.
The product has been sold out in stores.
The tickets have been sold for the concert.

Show examples from the web [+]

You also might want to take a look at what other customers have to say about the kimono you are thinking of buying and how many times it has been sold.
Which amount of produced determining it has been sold in the last year?
It is not excluded that the sculpture is false, in how much back the end of the nineteenth century, when it has been sold, there were a collectionism and a market with false.
It has been sold in a design furniture shop in Gent (Belgium), and two pieces were made to measure in solid wood for two private apartments in Milan (Italy).
Most of it has been sold off.
Sweet Home It will be shot in Barcelona and English. So far it has been sold to Latin America and Middle East.
The repurchase of a financial asset shortly after it has been sold is sometimes referred to as a wash sale.
By 1965, it was the most commonly prescribed sedative in Britain, where it has been sold legally under the names Malsed, Malsedin, and Renoval.
When Snoop Dogg wore a Hilfiger sweatshirt during an appearance on Saturday Night Live in 1994, it has been sold out the next day at the stores in New York.
Why is my listing still in Trovit although it has been sold?
You name it, it has been sold on Ebay!
Thus, whether it has been sold or given in token of a debt, the young corsican nation saw itself treated as an object and during the Consulting of the 22th of May 1768, it pronounced itself in favor of the mind resistance.
The journalist remarks that the income from oil extraction in this case is particularly high because the cost of extraction is amongst the lowest in the world: 4 dollars a barrel, whereas for the last four years it has been sold at 110 dollars a barrel!
It has been sold to more than 100,000 satisfied customers about the planet.
It has been sold successfully for several years for the automotive industry and for applications which do not require UL-Approval acc. to UL 60950.
The New Adventures of Geronimo Stilton, a coproduction with Superprod with the participation of RAI Fiction and France Television as broadcasting partner, has already premiered in more than 30 countries and it has been sold in more than 100.
It has been sold openly on the market.
It has been sold just for few years and I bet that, even if it's an extremely elegant perfume, it has been around for few years and then discontinuated because it was too avant-garde for that era.
At the Cannes international market, Mia madrehas been acquired by Argentina, Chile and all the main countries in Latin America; in Europe, it has been sold to Spain, Great Britain, Scandinavia, the Benelux and a raft of others.

Alternatives:

it has sold
it got sold
it has been purchased
it has been bought
it has changed ownership

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It was sold vs it has been sold

"It was sold"

"it has been sold"

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