13

How can the answer in the following test question be "it"?

Mr. Akagi was unable to buy tickets for the concert because it/they was sold out.

Araucaria - Not here any more.
  • 27,144
  • 4
  • 53
  • 117
manh nghiem
  • 131
  • 1
  • 3
  • Even if the primary statement implies singular (Mr. Akagi was unable to buy a ticket* for the concert...), the final clause always refers to the plural (...because they were sold out). I'm guessing that's because in order to be "sold out" in the first place, there must have been multiple* tickets that were *all* sold. – FumbleFingers Nov 26 '22 at 14:39
  • 29
    ...actually, no. You can say ...because it was* sold out. That means the concert* was "sold out", not the *tickets*. It's a stylistic choice which way you want to express things. – FumbleFingers Nov 26 '22 at 14:41
  • 3
    @FumbleFingers - ++1. The game was sold out. The movie was sold out. The concert was sold out. The play was sold out. – Michael Harvey Nov 26 '22 at 16:12
  • 12
    It's always "it was" (singular) or "they were" (plural). The rest of the sentence doesn't really matter. – Ouroborus Nov 27 '22 at 08:07
  • 1
    @Ouroborus: No, that's not always so. I know at least one exception, "as it were". But I don't think that's a past tense - is is a subjunctive? Similarly, "if only it were possible". – MSalters Nov 28 '22 at 14:44
  • 2
    @MSalters, yes, it's the subjunctive, where "were" is used regardless of the gender, number, or person of the subject. In the indicative, Ouroborus's statement is correct. – Alan Nov 28 '22 at 17:10
  • Note the difference in meaning between "We tried to get tickets for the concert, but it was sold out" and "We tried to get VIP tickets for the concert, but they were sold out", where /it/ refers to the concert and /they/ refers to a type of ticket (which could be any/all types in certain phrasing). – simpleuser Nov 29 '22 at 19:42

6 Answers6

35

In this context, "sold out" can be used to describe tickets or an event (in this case, the concert), and so either could be the antecedent of a pronoun after "because". However, the sentence has the verb "was" after the pronoun in question, which requires a singular subject, giving "it" rather than "they" as the correct answer.

Acccumulation
  • 6,086
  • 10
  • 13
24

"It" refers to the concert, not the tickets.

"Sold-out" is often used as a compound adjective to describe an event that has sold every ticket and there is no more capacity.

Example: The concert was sold out.

Astralbee
  • 100,700
  • 2
  • 111
  • 222
12

It is a combination of "it" and "was" - it is referring to the concert which is a singular item.

"The concert, it was sold out"

Was is used when the item it's being referred to is singular whereas were is used when something is plural.

"The tickets, they were sold out"

if there had been more than one concert then you could also use they/were

"The concerts, they were sold out"

meaning all the concerts were sold out.

In that sentence if you didn't have was then it could either be it was or they were and both sentences would make sense...

'Mr. Akagi was unable to buy tickets for the concert because they were sold out' (the tickets were sold out) 'Mr. Akagi was unable to buy tickets for the concert because it was sold out' (the concert was sold out)

TheKLF99
  • 229
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
    Absolutely correct. The other answers all seem to miss that choosing the solution that matches the form of the verb is almost certainly the point of the question. – Eric Nolan Nov 28 '22 at 11:32
2

Either "it" or "they" is valid here. You can say that the tickets are sold out, in which case "tickets" is plural so you should use "they". Or you can say that the concert is old out, in which case "concert" is singular so you should use "it".

It's probably more common to say that the concert is sold out than that the tickets are sold out, but either is valid and neither would strike a fluent English speaker as strange.

Jay
  • 65,313
  • 1
  • 69
  • 142
  • 14
    Hmmm. Well, you could if the verb concerned, which must agree with the subject, wasn't was. – Araucaria - Not here any more. Nov 26 '22 at 23:45
  • 4
    @Araucaria-Nothereanymore. Yes, of course the verb has to agree with the pronoun. "It was" or "they were". – Jay Nov 27 '22 at 04:11
  • 4
    When people say "they were sold out" the "they" can be a reference to the ticket seller or vendor, rather than the actual tickets. "They were sold out of tickets" would not make sense if it were referring to the tickets, but it does if referring to the venue or seller. – barbecue Nov 27 '22 at 16:23
  • 1
    @barbecue Yes, good point, third possible interpretation. If you said, "They were sold out of tickets", "they" presumably refers to either the venue or some third-party ticket seller. If you said, "The tickets were sold out", then you are talking about the tickets themselves. – Jay Nov 28 '22 at 01:37
0

Language can be very variable.

"it was sold out" - correct, the concert was sold out.
"they was sold out" - wrong, should be "were"

"they were sold out" - correct, meaning the tickets were sold out.
"they were sold out" - correct, meaning the ticket sellers had sold all tickets.
"they were sold out" - correct, meaning the bands concert tickets were sold out.
"she was sold out" - correct, meaning the female artist's concert tickets were sold out.
"she was sold out" - correct, meaning that the female ticket seller whom Mr. Akagi called had sold all her tickets.

gnasher729
  • 3,841
  • 14
  • 12
-1

The version with "it was" is correct because "sold out" should refer to an event or seller, not to an item being sold. See for example definitions at Merriam-Webster and Collins.

having all available tickets or accommodations sold completely and especially in advance
also : of or relating to a sold-out event a sold-out crowd

and

(B1) If a performance, sports event, or other entertainment is sold out, all the tickets for it have been sold. The premiere on Monday is sold out.
(B2) If a shop is sold out of something, it has sold all of it that it had. The stores are sometimes sold out of certain groceries.

Neither of these are consistent with describing the tickets themselves as "sold out"; instead you would say "the tickets had all been sold".

Especially Lime
  • 3,107
  • 9
  • 18
  • 3
    I disagree with this, it's very common to describe an item itself as selling out - it's perfectly natural to say either that a concert/ticket vendor sold out, or that tickets for the concert sold out. See such headlines as "The PS5 Digital Edition is sold out at Best Buy." In cases where there are multiple vendors, this is the simplest way to describe the situation - you'd simply say that "PS5's are sold out", but not attempt to list every potential PS5 vendor as sold out. – Nuclear Hoagie Nov 28 '22 at 15:38
  • 1
    Tis the season - "Buy now before they're all sold out!". Yep 'sold out' definitely can and does refer to the item being sold. – mcalex Nov 28 '22 at 17:52