student asking question

In this case, can I replace "end" with "finish"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. Both, finish and end are synonyms of each other, but, there is a slight difference in meaning so you have to be careful when you think about interchanging them. "Finish" relates to end of any stage or part of that task, while "end" is related to the stop or entire termination of that work. To put it more simply, "finish" co-relates to completion, but "end" co-relates to termination. In this case however, you can replace "end" with "finish". But it is key to remember that that is not always the case. Ex: Did you finish your homework? (Complete) Ex: Did you end your homework? (Sounds unnatural) Ex: Why did they end the after school program? (Terminate/permanent) Ex: Why did they finish the after school program? (Sounds temporary, like maybe it is only finished for the day)

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