What's the difference between 売る and 売れる？


I looked up both words in a
[dictionary](http://jisho.org/word/%E5%A3%B2%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B), but they both
meant the same thing, "to sell".

I was confused because I've been playing around with verb conjugation, and one
site told me that 売る was a godan verb meaning "to sell", hence naturally the
potential form of this godan verb would be "売れる." However, it appears that
"売れる" isn't merely a conjugated form of "売る” and is itself a verb, having its
own conjugations....I'm confused

Maybe conjugations have conjugations?




売る is a transitive verb which means "sell". 売れる is a specific verb because it
has two types: a potential verb of 売る and an intransitive verb. It is
generally used as an intransitive verb. The meaning of 売れる is written
[here](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/21238/meaning/m0u/).

For example, the 売れる of この本は、よく売れる doesn't have the meaning as potential.

In addition, when [五段活用]{ごだんかつよう} verbs change to [下一段]{しもいちだん}活用 verbs, they
sometimes become potential verbs and they are called [可能動詞]{かのうどうし}. For
example, when a 五段活用 verb 書く changes to a 下一段活用 verb 書ける, it is a potential
verb of 書く.

