End vs finish

[Sam]

Hello! Torsten!
I had answered 5 questions out of 10 correctly in the end/finish questions.

Test No. incompl/elem-5 "Finish/End"

I am groomy because I couldn't distinguish between finish and end. I have found a dictionary to know the differences.
But I had faild. the dictionary said 'end=finish' my dictionary is long man dictionary.
Please let me know the difference between them.
I didn't post the head line cause I don't know which I should post the questions.
Thank you .

[Alan]

Hi,

Thanks for your question, which is difficult to answer because the two verbs are used in many idioms. I can only say that 'finish' usually suggests conclusion and 'end' suggests finality. Let me give you 2 examples:

They finish work at 6 o'clock.
She ended her career as an opera singer in 1968.

Hope this helps,
Alan
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[Guest]

I've got a question. So we should use I've finished my lesson instead of my lesson has ended?

[Torsten]

Both sentences - I've finished my lesson as well as My lesson has ended are correct. The simply have a slightly different meaning.
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[Nola]

Hi Alan,
May be the difference between finish and end in the examples you gave is :
**They finish work at 6 o'clock. (They can continue their work afterwards)
**She ended her career as an opera singer in 1968. (which means that she put an end to her career and she won't do it any more)
Is that what you meant? (finish vs end) = (conclusion vs finality)

Nola

[Irampanti]

Wow perfect! I think I anderstood the difference. Thank you!

[Alan]

Hi Nola,

Couldn't have put it better myself! Thanks.

Alan
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[Anubala]

i have finished reading above discussion. Now I know when to use 'End/Finish' verb. Thanks to Alan, Nola, Torsten who helped me to put an end to the long time confusion I had about usgae of these words : ).

[Soma]

Dear Torsten, I have just finished my test about (finish vs. end) and I got 5 marks?

Please help me to know the difference between them?
Yours sincerely,
Maha

[Torsten]

Hi Maha,

Please take the test again to improve your result. You should be able to answer all the questions correctly. Regarding the differences between please finis and end, please read finish vs. end. Please note that every single question has a link called "Teacher Explanation". Please click on those links to read the explanations.
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[Yoki]

hi nola
your additional expalanation is very clear
i understood after read your posting
thanks also alan and torsten

[Matias]

Hi Torsten,

What's the diference between finish and end?

Rug,

Matias

[Torsten]

Hi Matias,

Please read finish vs. end and let me know what you think.

Many thanks,
Torsten
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[Bhikkhu1991a]

Dear Torsten Daerr,

I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity of studying English lesson 4 that you sent. Although I had answered nine questions correctly out of ten questions, I wasn’t confident enough about some of my decisions. I only became more confident after I had read Alan’s explanation “I can only say that 'finish' usually suggests conclusion and 'end' suggests finality” in reply to a question http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic707.html and many other explanations.

However, I have a question after reading Question 10 explained by Alan “You need finished with here as this means that they no longer see each other. If you use ended then you would have to have an object as in: They have ended their relationship”.
(http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic1330.html#finished_with_each_other)

According to The LDOCE Online Dictionary, the word “finish” can be used in both ways, intransitive and transitive. (http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/finish_1). Could you please explain this part?

Thank you.

Best wishes.

[Alan]

Hi,

You're right. 'Finish' can be used with and without an object as in: We finished our meal at 8 o'clock. Have you finished ? Yes, thank you.

In the test sentence the expression is 'finish with.'

Alan
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