student asking question

Why is it "I'm not done" not "I haven't done"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. "I'm not done" means I have started something but I have not finished it yet, I'm still in the process of doing something. "I haven't done" means I have not started yet or I haven't experienced. In this clip, Grizz is saying he is still in the process of complaining, so we have to use "I'm not done". If we use "I haven't done", it wouldn't make sense because haven't done complaining yet means either I haven't started complaining yet or I have never complained before. It would also grammatically incorrect because "do" is a transitive verb, it must have an object, so you can't say I have not done + verb, because the object is not expressed. Ex: I haven't done my homework yet. Ex: I haven't done that yet. Ex: I'm not done eating yet. Ex: I'm not done exercising yet.

Popular Q&As

03/29

Complete the expression with a quiz!