Sort out means to deal with or solve something (a problem, an issue, a misunderstanding) or to organise and tidy something (a wardrobe, papers, your affairs). It's especially common in British English: people use it about a mistake on a bill, a booking or an argument with a neighbour.
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sort out + problem/booking/mess; sort it out; sort out + wardrobe/papers (= tidy)
- The bank finally sorted out the problem with my card after three phone calls.
- Could you sort out the hotel booking while I buy the train tickets?
- I spent Sunday sorting out my wardrobe and gave three bags of clothes to charity.
What changed
First versionDon't worry, I'll sort out with the booking tomorrow.
RevisionDon't worry, I'll sort out the booking tomorrow.
Deal with takes with, so it's easy to add with here too. But sort out takes its object directly: sort out the booking. If the object is a pronoun, it goes in the middle: sort it out.
Figure out and sort out can both be about getting to grips with a problem, but they do different jobs. Figure out means to understand or work something out: I figured out why the laptop was so slow. Sort out means to fix it or put it in order: A technician sorted it out in ten minutes.
Your turn
There are old bills and letters all over my desk, so this weekend I'm going to ___ and throw away the rubbish.
Show the answer
sort them out — The bills and letters are replaced here by the pronoun them, and a pronoun goes between the verb and the particle: sort them out. Sort out them sounds wrong to a native speaker. With a noun, both orders are possible: sort out the papers and sort the papers out.
Describe a problem you had to sort out recently: with a bank, a delivery, your accommodation or at work. Say what went wrong and how you solved it.
My parcel was sent to the wrong address, so I called the courier company and sorted it out in ten minutes.
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