I have booked a Joker (a movie) ticket for 10th of May

[jutfrank]

I am not. I am questioning some of your claims:

1. You can't 'book' tickets.

2. I'm saying that I consider it wrong.

3. I'm suggesting that most people agree with me.

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

I have made no claims about meaning.

Yes, you have. You're saying that you accept 'book' as a synonym of 'buy'. You're saying that 'Let's book tickets' means 'Let's buy tickets'. We're both talking about word meaning. (If not, then I've misunderstood the entire thread.)

I certainly don't agree that I am accepting something that is incorrect.

Yes, you've made that quite clear. I understand this.

The citations I gave had been selected by lexicographers. I generally place more trust in them that in the opinions of people who contribute to internet forums.

Okay, I don't take offence to that. I do genuinely value your opinion.

That is why I always cite grammar books and/or dictionaries if my forum opinion is challenged.

Yes, sure. Good practice.

We see from that that 'buys tickets' is six times more common that 'reserve tickets', not that 'reserve tickets' is incorrect.

Are you looking at the data I linked? It's comparing 'buy tickets' with 'book tickets'.

 

[5jj]

You're saying that 'Let's book tickets' means 'Let's buy tickets'.

I am not.

Are you looking at the data I linked? It's comparing 'buy tickets' with 'book tickets'.

Yes. I accept that the former is more common.

If other members aren't getting bored, I am, so I will leave it there. Clearly some native speakers think that "You can't 'book' tickets" is incorrect. I don't. As some lexicographers agree with me, nothing said in a forum will change my mind..

 

[jutfrank]

I'm bored too, but please put me out of my misery before we finish.

I am not [saying that Let's book tickets is synonymous with Let's buy tickets] .

You're not? What have I misunderstood about what emsr2d2 and yourself mean, then?

You can't 'book' tickets. You buy tickets.

I book tickets on a regular basis.

So do I.

 

[5jj]

When I stand at a railway ticket office and hand over money for journey I am about to take, I am buying a ticket.

When I go online for a future trip, I may well refer to this as booking a ticket.

 

[jutfrank]

Thank you. But for you, does booking a ticket entail paying for it?

I think what I can't understand is how you can book a ticket without paying. The ticket is the evidence of purchase. Normally, you don't have to pay for something in advance to make a reservation. The booking part is the reservation and the paying may come at the booking stage or after the event (or possibly even not at all). My understanding is that the reserving and the paying are quite different acts.

It occurs to me that it may be that we're understanding what a 'ticket' is in different ways. For me, the ticket is the proof of payment, but for emsr2d2 and yourself, I wonder if the ticket is rather proof of the reservation itself.

 

[Skrej]

When I read the title, my initial thought was that 'book' was unacceptable (at least in AmE) for a movie ticket. I might book a cruise, a train, or even an airline ticket, but for something like a movie, play, or concert I can only 'buy'' (if limited to a choice between 'book' and 'buy'). I'm not sure why.

I've never really thought about it until this thread, but it may have something to do with actually purchasing vs. reserving. At least in the US, you can't really reserve a movie ticket. You can pay online and pick up at the theater, but you can't just hold a seat until you get to the theater to pay. Ditto for things like concerts and plays, as far as I know.

I can't provide a good reason for why I can 'book' a flight but not a movie ticket. Interesting question.

 

[Barque]

I think it's just the effect of usage.

I'd say it started off as buying tickets in order to book seats (for a movie or a play or a match or a flight or whatever) and then someone started saying "book tickets", and it caught on, and it's now normal.

 

[5jj]

Thank you. But for you, does booking a ticket entail paying for it?

Yes, though payment may come later.

I think what I can't understand is how you can book a ticket without paying.

I think that what you can't understand is that emsr2d2 and I can book tickets and you can't.

 

[5jj]

is that emsr2d2 and I can book tickets and you can't.

Perhaps accept is a better word than understand.

 

[jutfrank]

But for you, does booking a ticket entail paying for it?

Yes, though payment may come later.

So then what's the difference for you between 'book a ticket' and 'buy a ticket'. Is it just that 'book a ticket' means 'buy a ticket in advance'?

Perhaps accept is a better word than understand.

I do fully accept that you and many others accept it just as many don't. As you've shown, there's plenty of evidence that lots of people commonly use it.

 

[5jj]

So then what's the difference for you between 'book a ticket' and 'buy a ticket'. Is it just that 'book a ticket' means 'buy a ticket in advance'?

Probably. I don't really think about it.

I do fully accept that you and many others accept it just as many don't.

That's something. What I don't really understand is that some of you who don't use it insist that it's wrong.

 

[jutfrank]

Probably. I don't really think about it.

Well, okay, I'm happy to leave it there.

What I don't really understand is that some of you who don't use it insist that it's wrong.

For me, the issue here is about meaning. To some of us it just doesn't make sense. That's how it's wrong.

There's nothing unusual about people disagreeing on the acceptability of certain forms. Take a different example:

I could care less.

In terms of speaker meaning, this is very likely to mean something along the lines of: 'I really don't care'. But in terms of sentence meaning, it means something quite different. The way I think about this is that there's an unresolved tension between what people mean and what words means. You can argue from a purely descriptive angle that if enough people say it, it must be acceptable to all, but we don't have free licence to use words in whatever way we want—if we want to express ourselves intelligibly, we're constrained to some extent by word meaning.

 

[White Hat]

So then what's the difference for you between 'book a ticket' and 'buy a ticket'. Is it just that 'book a ticket' means 'buy a ticket in advance'?

I don't know how it works in the UK but in my neck of the woods people prefer to obtain airline tickets online. After booking a ticket, you will be given 15 to 40 minutes to make up your mind and decide if you want to proceed with the purchase. So you actually book a ticket first and then you pay for it with your credit card, which does not have to happen instantly.

 

[emsr2d2]

At its simplest level, using the train example, I would use "buy a ticket" for a ticket that is instantly in my possession, such as buying a train ticket at the station for travel from that station straight away or at some point in the future. I would use "book a ticket" for booking it online or by phone for train travel at a later date.
The same goes for the cinema. If I go to the cinema to see a film, walk up to the kiosk or electronic booth, put my card in and a ticket is spat out so that I can go straight into the auditorium and watch the film, I've bought the ticket. If I go to the cinema's website and pay for a ticket that I'll use later (even if it's later the same day), I've booked a ticket. When I get to the cinema, I'll put my booking reference (note the word "booking" there) into the electronic kiosk and it will print and produce my ticket, which I'll then use to get into the auditorium.