Engleski jezik – Business English: Sales – prodaja

The words supply, manufacture, retail and wholesale can be used as verbs or nouns. The word provide is only used as a verb.

We say that you supply and provide someone with something:

The company supplies / provides us with their products. 

Provide can also be used with an object only:

Law firms provide legal advice.

The word wholesale is more often used as a noun, adjective and adverb than as a verb. (veleprodaja, veleprodajni, na veliko)

They sell refrigerators wholesale. (adverb)

Oni prodaju frižidere na veliko.

Wholesale prices fell last month. (adjective)

Veleprodajne cene su opale prošlog meseca.

Wholesale is the business of buying and selling large quantities of goods. (noun)

Veleprodaja je poslovanje koje se vrši kupovinom i prodajom velikih količina robe.

The words on the right in the picture above represent people or, more often, companies which do the activities expressed by the verb / noun on the left.

We add the -er ending to all of them.

supply – supplier

manufacture – manufacturer

provide – provider