- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK
by Dr. Verbos Metikulos
COMPLETE vs. FINISH: At the Center for English as a First Language, we've agreed that the staff will avoid certain topics while trying to relax in the Fowler Lounge after a trying day of trying to stamp out try and.
"The" is one such topic. It takes, on average, six years for a speaker of a language related to Mandarin or Cantonese (which don't have "the" at all) to learn how to use "the" in English. No simple rule guides us, only experience. We don't usually get into "complex" vs. "complicated," either.
"Complete" vs. "finish" is nearly as hard to explain, but some staff can't leave it alone. Dr. Garrel S. Utter, poor man, has lost friends by bending their ears about this after too many libations.
The problem is that dictionaries define both words by using each to define the other, and while they're similar in meaning, they're not synonymous.
"Complete" comes from words that mean "full," so generally, it means to fulfill, or to make whole. A movie might be finished, but if part of it got lost, it's not complete.
"Finish" means to stop, come to an end, or to limit. A mob boss wanting someone killed might say "Finish him." "Complete him" just won't get the job done.
Thousands of websites repeat a story about a man who supposedly won a contest with this illustration of the difference:
When you marry the right woman, you are complete.
When you marry the wrong woman, you are finished.
When the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are completely finished.
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