Phrase Usage – Does ‘On Sale’ Always Mean ‘Available to Be Bought’ in England and ‘Available at Lower Price’ in America

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My question is that

Do American people always think "on sale" means "available to be bought at lower price"?

Do British people always think "on sale" means just "*available to be bought"

For example, When someone says "Clothes are now on sale at BigC", American will think they can buy clothes there at lower price while British will only think they can buy clothes there only and British will never think they can get them cheap there, right?

Best Answer

In American English, "on sale" can have either meaning depending on the context. The context is generally whether you would already expect the item to be available to be sold at that store or not.

"Bananas are on sale at the grocery store."

We would expect bananas to be available to be bought at the grocery store, so here, "on sale" means "available to be bought at a lower price."

"Used cars are on sale at the grocery store's parking lot."

Here, we would not usually expect used cars to be available to be purchased at the grocery store's parking lot, so the meaning is simply "available to be purchased" with no expectation for there to be a lower price.

(I apologize, I cannot answer for British English)

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