Book tickets...Sell Tickets

by Jambulingam
(Bangalore,India)

One of my students whose mother tongue is not English asked me," At the bus station ticket counter, there is a sign which says "Tickets booked here". In the cinema hall it says "Tickets for First class sold here", but in a car repair shop it says "repainting done here". Shouldn't is say "painting did here" like the other places?

I explained that "booked here" means, "are booked" in the same way, "tickets are sold". In the car repair shop, "painting done here" means "painting of the car is done there, because the past participle of do is "done".

Am I right? Otherwise how should I explain this to a student whose mother tongue is not English?

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Hi Jambulingam. If you look at the examples you will notice that the first two are referring to objects (tickets) where as painting is the action.

Tickets are booked
Tickets are sold
painting is done (because it is an action). It is "done" in the past participle...just like you said. If you wanted to keep in the same vein as the first two examples you could say "cars are painted", but it's not natural. We say repainting/painting (of cars) done here.

Does that answer your question? Leave a comment if you need more clarification. :) Have a great day!
-Diana

PS: I just received your feedback Jambulingam and I must say that your comments were very touching. I am so very glad that you like the website. You and your students are exactly the reason WHY I am working so hard.

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