Which to use
“finished” is an adjective and “finishes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,220
- “finished” frequency rank
- #8,287
- “finishes” frequency rank
- 9507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | finished | finishes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Processed or perfected. | plural of finish |
Where the eye mixes finished and finishes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. finished and finishes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses finished with finishes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: finished is /ˈfɪnɪʃt/ while finishes is /ˈfɪnɪʃɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “finished” becomes s in “finishes”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
finished is recorded at frequency rank #1,220, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɪnɪʃt/. finishes is at rank #8,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɪnɪʃɪz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 9507, this pair ranks #497,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of finished vs finishes
Shared letters: efhins. Private to "finished": d. Private to "finishes": -.
"finished" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "finishes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "finished" for "finishes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "finished" vs "finishes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "finished" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "finishes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #497,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "finished" and "finishes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finisher vs finishes". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #497,056 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.