Standing Ovation

Posted by: Josef Essberger

They say that no dictionary has ever been able to define the difference between ‘Complete’ and ‘Finished’

What’s the difference between ‘COMPLETE’ and ‘FINISHED’?

No dictionary has ever been able to define the difference between ‘complete’ and ‘finished’. However, in a linguistic conference held in London, England, Indian American Sun Sherman was the clever winner.

His final challenge was this. His response was: When you marry the right woman, you are ‘complete’. If you marry the wrong woman, you are ‘finished’. And when the right woman catches you with the wrong woman, you are ‘completely finished’.

His answer received a five-minute standing ovation.

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Posted by Josef Essberger June 2022
Contributor: Josef Essberger, founder of EnglishClub. Originally from London, England, Josef is the author of several books for learners of English including English Prepositions List and Learn English in 7.

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10 comments

• Cédric says:
  

  That guy is cleverest. Just awesome!

• Deep says:
  

  When finished it means finished and when it says complete then it means ready for the next thing

• BMA Muktadir says:
  

  Complete means nothing remains for doing anything at all, but on the other hand, finishing may remain something of a part of doing something.

• yang says:
  

  complete is a detailed process towards achievement, however, finish is comparatively unformal way describing the end of something.

• The King Of Love From IRAN says:
  

  When a human or thing is complete, it means he/she/it has the acceptable quality, BUT the word “finished”usually refers doing something by a human or another being that it is possible to be done, but in the form of incomplete.

  Some finished works are complete while some finished works are incomplete.

  It looks like as 🌹Randy🌹 has said, the above story is 😄the best joke😄!

  Thank ❤️YOU❤️for sharing it with us,

• Randy says:
  

  It’s a joke @Ohmy

• KingWiliam1* says:
  

  I would say that mission accomplished sounds positive.

  Mission complete neutral.

  And mission finished more like kind of negative in the way that someone is really relieved that this task is done. Could I am right?

• Ohmy says:
  

  It is a little wicked that in this kind of media a woman is mentioned… why not write ”person” and maybe not quote directly, if that is the reason. Personally as a woman thought immediately that it is the same when marrying a man.

• Edward Kunda Matanda says:
  

  I would add another one: to accomplish! what’s the difference between: mission accomplished, mission completed and mission finished?

• M E says:
  

  Brilliant! 😄