What is the difference between 'finished' and 'completed', as both words gives the same meaning?
Ex 1: He finished his homework.
Ex 2: He completed his homework.
And also how or where to use these words?
Dictionary Reference:
Completed: Finish making or doing.
Finished: Brought to an end; completed.
As for me both sentences have the same meaning. So is there any real difference between them?
In many contexts, the meanings are pretty much the same, but you might hear finished more often than completed in casual conversation. For example:
I've finished my shopping.
She finished the song.
He finished the race.
I could use completed in those sentences – the meaning wouldn't change, but the register might sound off.
The word completed can convey some sense of accomplishment. In the context of a race, it might work when the race is a major achievement:
He completed his first marathon last year.
Homework, though, is not really a major achievement, so I think you'd hear finished more often in casual conversation:
“Joey, where are you going? Did you finish your homework?”
That said, you might see completed in more formal contexts, such as a paper on education, or a course syllabus:
Students must complete six homework assignments during the semester.
I'd like to add a bit about the difference between finish and complete, in hope that it can help "complete" other answers, which are already good, a little. (In other words, I write this as a supplementary answer.)
The striking difference between the two can be observed in the contrast of "You finish me" and "You complete me".
"You finish me" (or "You finish me off") means "You kill me", i.e. you put "the end" to my life.
"You complete me" is normally used between couples, in the sense that one (e.g. a wife) completes the other (e.g. a husband). With her, he is a more "complete" person. Without her, he is "incomplete". A good example of this phrase can be found in Jerry Maguire (one of my favorite movies of all time!):
Jerry Maguire: [babbling and struggling] I love you. You... you complete me. And I just...
Dorothy: Shut up,
[pause]
Dorothy: just shut up.
[Pause]
Dorothy: You had me at "hello". You had me at "hello".
Source: IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/quotes?item=qt0389299
So, once you finish me, my life is "no more".
But once you complete me, my life is "perfect".
Back to your homework sentence (He completed/finished his homework), homework is a kind of work. After work reaches its perfect state (i.e. "it's done"), we'll have no more of that work. This is why in the context of work, including your homework, saying either He finished his homework or He completed his homework will have pretty much the same meaning.
From wordreference :
fin•ish /ˈfɪnɪʃ/ v.
to bring or come to an end or to completion
to use completely
to overcome completely; destroy or kill
to put a finish on (wood, metal, etc.)
And still from wordreference :
com•plete /kəmˈplit/ v.
to make whole, entire, or perfect
to bring to an end ;finish
We can see that finish and complete use each other to define themselves, so they have a very close meaning.
Finish has :
the killing meaning,
the using the whole product meaning
and the surface coating meaning
in addition of the complete common meaning.
While complete has the extra finishing perfectly meaning.
He finished his homework.
He simply ended it, did enought to consider it finished.
He completed his homework.
He ended it correctly, totally, the with success part is tacit.
I guess most of the times these terms can be used interchangeably.
However, you cannot "complete" something that does not "support being complete" (e.g. we say "finish" one's class or one's day, but not "complete").
Moreover, "finish" has far more definitions and uses than "complete", as stated many times above.
So, to sum it up, where "complete" is used, we can also use "finish" (even if it renders the sentence less formal), but not the vice versa. When we complete something, it comes to an end (it finishes). Nevertheless, when we finish something, it does not necessarily complete.
The same, more or less, meaning of and differences between the two verbs are met in greek as well: Finish -> Tel-iono: telos -> the end (noun) and Complete -> Oloklir-ono: olokliros -> whole, complete (adj.)
No,there is no real difference between 'finished' and 'completed' in the sentence : "He finished / completed his homework".
But sometimes the verb 'finish' has a negative connotation : the sentence "She finished my life" means 'she ruined my life'. In this context, the verb 'complete' cannot be used. Similarly, the verb 'complete' has a positive connotation : the sentence "You have completed my life" may be a Good Night message for wife, meaning without you, my life is incomplete.
Complete and finish are opposite in meaning but their use can be made to give the same meaning.
Complete is to be wholly made up. Finish is to exhaust, or expended. So in their use in a sentence, they can be used from that opposite direction to convey the same meaning: as in a cup being half filled or half empty.
One can complete his shopping when one has filled the shopping bag with all items to be bought.
One can finish shopping when one has exhausted the items in the shopping list.
