![]() (But somehow Pertinax said this was the same use.) But somehow this is fine with the verb "finish".Īlso, Pertinax's example of "done" ( A terrible sound arose when the reading of this document was done.) indicates that the subject "the reading of this document" was in a state of having received the action of doing, which clearly is not the same use of "done" as that in "I'm done". So, in this supposedly "grammatical" saying, the "people are finished" part still has the same illogical aspect to it as does "I'm done". Here, the subject "turkey" is in a state of having received the action of doing (i.e., cooking), whereas the subject "people" is in a state of having completed the action of finishing. I'm dumbfounded, therefore, that some people would criticize this use of "done" by saying "turkeys are done and people are finished". ![]() So, in a context where this particular construction "I'm done/finished" can be used to mean "I have finished", if anything sounds illogical to me, it's the fact that the subject "I" is in a state of having completed the action of doing/finishing - instead of being in a state of having received the action, as in "I'm surprised", "I'm excited", or "I'm confused." I mean, imagine you're able to replace "have" in a perfect tense of any verb with "be" and still get the same meaning. (What happened to "I have done", by the way? ) This thread tells me that "I'm done" or "I'm finished" is commonly used at least in AmE in the sense that "I have finished". ![]() I'd like to revive this thread and ask a question of my own.
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