Finish or end?

[Beeesneees]

Very little difference, Markland. The off just adds a little emphasis. Another phrase which is similar to 'finish off' and could be used here is 'polish off' (the meaning is exactly the same... if you polish something you wipe the dirt away completely from it, and I've always presumed that's where the idiom has its meaning.)

If you were to use 'polish off' you would need the 'off' to maintain the sense.
With 'finish off' you could drop the 'off' and it would still make sense, but you wouldn't get the idea of the speed with which those cakes disappeared in quite the same way.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Kviksteps]

I couldnt understand this sentece...

[Lethutrangh]

me too, I got 8 correct but still dont understand question 5 and the term "finish off". please explain to me :(

[Imene1]

Hello everybody,
I have a question please,
In this test's question why it has said "finish off the cake " and not "finish the cake" without "off".
Thank you.

[Imene1]

I don't notice before my last post that someone has explained the difference between finish and finish off . Many thanks Beeesneees.

[Kati Svaby]

Hello,

The correct answer the phrasal verb: finish off; (end off can't be because this verb doesn't exist)
finish off = to do the last part of sth; to make sth end by doing last thing.
-I need about an hour to finish off this report.
-They finished off the show with one of their most famous song.
-It didn't take long for the children to finish off the cakes and pastries that had not been eaten at the party.
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[Niaz1]

for this question i really confusing,i did not understand why we could not use end :(

[Beeesneees]

There are two reasons, Niaz:
1) to say 'end off' is grammatically incorrect.
2) To speak about people 'ending' food when the meaning is that they eat what is left is also incorrect.
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Cheers m' dears!

[Niaz1]

Hi
Thank you for awesome answers.They are really advantageous.
I can't understand the meaning of this question.could you please help me?