What is the difference between done and finished

It sounds completely ESL to me. I also know quite a number of Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis and have never heard that said before. March 14, at am. In other words, maybe those speakers of a previous time thought that certain verbs, when applied to people, should have a more polite or euphemistic form. An animal sweats…. July 28, at am.

You are finished. All our teachers said this, which indicates that finished is an active verb acting upon something else , and done is a verb in passive voice something being acted upon. April 17, at am. He waited until she was done talking. He waited until she was finished talking. If done and finished, as in the foregoing, can be used interchangeably, then we get:. He done talking, and sat down.

He finished talking, and sat down. He has done talking. He has finished talking. He had done talking. He had finished talking.

We have done talking. We have finished talking. June 11, at am. It says so in the dictionary. July 8, at pm. August 19, at pm. The difference in context in which these words are typically used implies a difference too unconscious to have been realized in the dictionary. July 17, at pm. February 11, at pm. February 12, at pm. Thanks all this. We use I am Done with xyz task. I have finished xyz task. May 12, at am. June 6, at am.

Paul O'Connor. June 30, at pm. August 12, at pm. December 4, at am. Bill Kavanagh. March 16, at pm. I find it shocking that I just read what I read. Cakes do not get finished; they get done, and we test them with a toothpick to see if they are DONE. I finished combining the ingredients before I placed the cake in the oven.

As a retired English major I clearly understood and taught that I do it in the present, and did it in the past, and done has to have a helper verb as had done, has done, should have done,etc.

This has nothing to do with completion…only the act of doing something. I now notice very learned speakers in my Christian channels saying this over and over. I will never rest my argument on this subject. It so grates on my nerves. I correct my great grandchildren every chance I get and will continue to do so. Where did that come from? That word is used all the time.

Maybe that word was added in as well, and I am just getting too old to remember! Thank you for allowing me time to sound off. Have never done this before.

Can anyone explain? March 31, at am. Thanks for the post. April 9, at am. Children are finished. April 16, at am. Dear ole Dad, used to tell me when I said I was done at the table. May 3, at am. The trouble with informal speech is, we tend to contract sentences and leave words out. It also depends on your emphasis:. My homework and I have parted ways. The meaning here is ambiguous. Of course, all these examples are in the present perfect tense; test them by trying them out in other tenses and sentence structures:.

Furthermore, the questions in the examples also indicate differences in time and progress. We can see that although the latter example works, it is a little clunky and is unlikely to be used in formal speech or writing. June 4, at am. Marcel Merchat. October 5, at am. Actually if you look at dictionary. Which would make it improper usage. Last I checked, history states we settled here from England. So theres your answer as to where that came from.

November 6, at pm. There is a simple reason why people are not done, they are finished. That is because done is not a verb and never has been a verb. Therefore to use the word done as a verb is incorrect.

Now I am finished explaining what should be the blatantly obvious to any native English speaker. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.

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How 'literally' can mean "figuratively". Literally How to use a word that literally drives some pe Is Singular 'They' a Better Choice? Olga Olga 11 1 1 gold badge 1 1 silver badge 2 2 bronze badges. Welcome to ELL! JamesK I don't think this is a duplicate. For what it's worth, my brother says, "Meals are done.

People are finished. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. I'm finished for the night. Both mean that you're stopping working for the night. Most of the time, though, they are interchangeable.

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