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Message board > Student: ´I ´m finished ´/ ´I ´ve finished ´
Student: ´I ´m finished ´/ ´I ´ve finished ´
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aura+
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Student: ´I ´m finished ´/ ´I ´ve finished ´
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Any native speakers out there?
Do you accept both in your classes?Which one is more common? (British English, preferably)
Thanks
Aura |
14 Mar 2012
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ascincoquinas
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Hi Aura!
Someone posted the same question a few days ago. take a look at this thread
hoep this helps. |
14 Mar 2012
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aura+
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Yes, it was me but it is still not clear enough...
Any native speakers? |
14 Mar 2012
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cunliffe
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Hi aura+. Both of these terms are acceptable and pretty much interchangeable. I spend a lot of my time teaching my students to say the full phrase, because they just call out, ´Fineeshed! ´ which drives me nuts. The phrase I ask them to use is ´I ´m finished. ´ |
15 Mar 2012
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Apodo
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Both these phrases are used. What do you say to your students? The answer depends on your statement.
Teacher: Tell me when you are finished.
Student: I ´m finished
Teacher: Tell me when you have finished.
Student: I ´ve finished.
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15 Mar 2012
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libertybelle
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And better to say I ´m finished or I have finished than I am done!
My old teacher said that people are not done - only food is done!
So if we called out - I ´m done, she ´d say, What temperature did you cook at?
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15 Mar 2012
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izulia
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I remember one of our teachers, a native speaker from England, corrected a student saying when you say ´I ´m finished ´ it is the same thing as ´I am dead ´. He said that the only appropriate way to indicate that your work is finished is to say ´I have finished".
I wonder what our native speaking colleagues think about that?
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15 Mar 2012
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Nina Pizzo
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Do you want to know which is the most common or which is the most correct?
The most common will possibly be "I ´m finished" as it is used in spoken communication situations - the fact that someone is a native speaker doesn ´t mean they will speak correctly, as you are probably aware.
The most correct in terms of syntax and semanthics will be "I ´ve finished". Any good grammar book will make this clear in the Present Perfect section.
I suggest Raymond Murphy ´s English Grammar in Use, Cambridge University Press, which was suggested to me by my native English / Scottish / Australian / American professors at university (yes, one per year in this order); it ´s not very expensive and any Portuguese bookshop will get it for you.
I know you asked for the opinion of a native speaker - I ´m sorry if you feel that I ´m barging in - but perhaps even native speakers will give you different answers depending on where they are from. There are different Englishes, native speakers from the US don ´t speak the same way as those from Australia, and Australian English will also be very different from British English.
Look for standard, not for common. Probably, the most common will be the one Chinese people use (Chinglish!).
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15 Mar 2012
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Anast_mic
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I agree with much of the above! As a native speaker, I tend to use I am finished more often than I have finished, although it is grammatically incorrect to use it in this context. I am finished means I am spent, dead, kaputt! I have explained this to my students and although at times I still might slip out an "Are you finished?" well, they always correct me!!! I guess I should practice what I preach! LOL Although I also ask "Is your work done?", I agree that "I am done" is also incorrect in the "fineeshed!!" context!! hope I helped! |
15 Mar 2012
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almaz
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To say that ´have finished ´ is more correct than ´be finished ´ is a wee bit silly. It seems to be an artificial standard based purely on personal preference, and apparently transmitted by people who would be expected to know better. Certainly, many textbooks still teach the false distinction, while usage (British & American) suggests that the latter construction is chiefly a regular part of everyday speech. Both forms are perfectly acceptable then.* It ´s said that the problem arises from its use with the personal subject, but this construction can be found in the works of Oliver Goldsmith, Jane Austen, Hugh Walpole, Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw and James Joyce (see Merriam-Webster ´s usage dictionary which, incidentally, places the ´done for ´ meaning at a much later date).
*By the way, Geoffrey Pullum (Professor of Linguistics and co-author of several grammar books etc) says:
It isn ´t sensible to call a construction grammatically incorrect when people whose status as fully competent speakers of the standard language is unassailable use it nearly all the time.
Hear hear!
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15 Mar 2012
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