Exceptional Expressions

Exceptional Expressions Posted 11/14/2009 Permanent Link

#15 Finish

EVERYDAY EVENTS:

Transitions are an important part of an everyday classroom. Students are asked to finish a test before they go to lunch. The teacher will ask how many students finished an assignment. Teachers and students finish a task and then move on to another part of the school day.

EXCEPTIONAL EXPRESSION:

The word finish can be used to signify the completion of a task or project. In this sense of the word, finish means that the assignment is entirely done. A secondary meaning of finish is to end a task whether or not it is fully completed. Finally, finish can be used to signify the annihilation of a specific object.

FOLLOW-UPS:

• How is ending a task different than completing it?
• How do you know if you’ve finished your work?
• What does it feel to achieve a hard task?

THE SPANISH CONNECTION:

Finish comes from a Middle English word fenys, which is related to the Latin word finire. In Spanish there is the word finito. It is used as an adjective to mean finite. At a glance finish and finito look like they are cognates. But they are actually false cognates. The Spanish word for finish is terminar. Terminar is the cognate of terminate, a synonym of finish. In English terminate is a more academic word. In this case, knowing the Spanish word terminar helps ELLs learn a more academic word, terminate. There are also content specific words that are related to terminate, such as terminus in electricity.

WORD CHANGES:

1) IDIOMS:

• Call it a day
• Wrap it up
• Down to the wire
• To polish off

2) COMMON PHRASES:

• Photo finish
• All good things come to an end
• All’s well that ends well
• Finish up
• Cease and desist
• To finish off

Click here to download the printable version of E4: Finish.