2022-02-11 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – D - done & did

Revision D

2022-02-11

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – D - done & did

แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น 

ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

 

Dictionary.com:

ออกเสียง done = “DUHN”

ออกเสียง did = “DID”

 

Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary:

done & did

The past participle of “do” is “done,” 

so it’s not “they have did what they promised not to do” 

but “they have done. . . .” 

But without a helping verb, the word is “did.”

Nonstandard: “I done good on the test.” 

Standard: “I did well on the test.” 

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Usage Notes

Using 'Done' and 'Finished'

Yes, you can use 'done' to mean 'finished'

What to Know

There is no rule against using done to mean finished.

Upon the completion of a meal for example, 

you are allowed to say "I'm done" or "I'm finished." 

 

However, some incorrectly continue to attest 

to the outdated adage "people are finished, food is done."

The difference between done and finished 

is not apparent to many people. 

 

These two words are used interchangeably 

by a good portion of the English-speaking population, 

often following the word I’m, and serving 

to indicate that the speaker 

has completed some task, episode, or other thing. 

 

There is a very good chance 

that some of you reading this may have made it through life 

so far without ever having heard that 

one of these words might be problematic. 

 

And then there are the rest of us, 

who have at some point finished dinner, stretched luxuriantly, 

and declined a second helping by saying “I’m done,” 

only to be curtly informed 

“People are finished; a cake/meat/the roast/dinner is done.”

 

Old Rules for "Done" and "Finished"

We are not entirely certain 

where the prohibition against using done 

to mean finished came from. 

 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage 

notes that done has been used as an adjective, 

in the sense of “finished,” since at least the 14th century. 

 

There is a more recent usage 

(this is a be done sense, rather than the older have done sense), 

which seems to be the one that people don’t much care for, 

and this one dates to the second half of the 19th century.

 

The earliest warnings we’ve seen 

against using done for finished 

come in H. N. MacCracken and Helen Sandison’s 

Manual of Good English from 1917. 

 

Most usage manuals of the 20th and 21st century 

do not make note of this matter. 

Theodore Bernstein, 

the author of a number of guides to language 

in the middle of the 20th century,

did include an entry warning readers to distinguish between them, 

although he later changed his mind about this. 

 

Bernstein may have also been 

the person responsible for the culinary aspect 

of the “people are finished; food is done” dicta.

 

The word [done] should not be used 

in good writing to mean finished or completed. 

It is proper to say “the roast is done,” 

but this does not mean it is finished; 

it means the roast is sufficiently cooked.
—Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer, 1965

 

The “food is done” line has been a very successful one, 

and still appears occasionally today.

When you have finished eating, please don’t say that you are done. 

People are “finished.” Cakes are “done.”
—Lydia Ramsey, Dottie Walters, 

Manners that Sell: Adding the Polish that Builds Profits, 2008

 

It should be noted that there are very few, if any, 

contemporary guides to English usage which take the position 

that people cannot be done; 

this prohibition, when found in print, 

tends to come from guides to manners, 

or in writing guides published online by an individual.

 

One of the problematic aspects of English usage 

is that we have accumulated so many rules, strictures, and prohibitions 

over the centuries that there is really no way 

that anyone could possibly speak more than a sentence or two 

without saying something that offends the ear of someone. 

 

For instance, have you ever used the word dilapidated?

If so, did you use it to refer to something that was made of stone? 

Because if you didn’t, you were using the word, 

according to some usage guides of yore, in error, 

as dilapidated comes in part from the Latin word lapis, 

meaning “stone,” 

and so should not be used to refer to a wooden house.

 

The "rule" against using done in reference to a person 

is not so archaic and outmoded as the admonition

that one should only use dilapidated to refer to things made of stone, 

but it still is not based on any logical grammatical rule. 

 

You needn’t worry about using done, 

but if you find that using it now makes you uncomfortable, 

yet don’t care for the sound of finished, 

some usage guides recommend using through instead.

 

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary

done

usage: 

Usage guides occasionally 

object to done in the adjectival senses “finished” and “through,” 

but the meanings are standard. 

done was formerly used attributively 

(The argument between them was a done thing), 

but it is now more common as a complement.