"I'm done my homework"

Ben   Wed Dec 14, 2005 8:49 pm GMT
Also, in the first conversation, the question COULD mean 'Which places have you been to before?' - i.e. it isn't a number specific question, however, the in the second question it's obvious B1 is talking about a particular time.
Hope that helps

Ben.
Boy   Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:00 pm GMT
Ben,
Is there any difference you see between these sentences?



Just imagine, you are a prof in the class and i'm a student. For a while, I was outside of the class for buying my pencils. I'm about to enter in your class.


Prof. Ben: Where have you been, Boy?
Boy: I have been to a local shop for buying my pencils.


Prof. Ben: Where were you, Boy?

Boy: I was at a local shop for buying my pencils.


In above mentioned sentences, the activity has been performed during a day. The notion has clearly indicated in both sentences that the activity has been done recently. I'm not really sure how to identify if Prof.Ben was taking about a 'particular time' in the second sentence.


P.S: I have mixed up concepts of present Perfect and Past Tense under some cirumstances like the one above. So any feedback/clarification to above mentioned question will really help me to understand the difference between these tenses.
Ben   Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:03 pm GMT
Boy, in this context I think both of the sentences are absolutely fine, and get the point across perfectly clearly. A couple of little tweaks though:

1) I have been to a local shop to buy my pencils

2) I was at a local shop buying my pencils

Hope that helps.

Ben.
Boy   Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:14 pm GMT
Thanks for your help and also for correcting my mistakes. I must say, English is a crazy language for those who try to understand the intricacies of it.
Mark   Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:27 am GMT
If some one says "I'm done", I would say
"Hello Done, my name is Mark".

I do not think "I'm done" is gramatically correct either.

Surely, the correct phrase is "I have finished"
andre in usa   Thu Jan 19, 2006 11:45 am GMT
<<My hunch is the same as Guest's who wrote "It looks like a contraction of "I'm done with my homework" and a mix-up with "I've done my homework".

It is hard to tell however if this is an example of imperfectly learned English in a ghetto environment or whether it was largely artificially perpetrated by a few people trying to be humorous.>>

What kind of ghetto are you talking about? The older definition (area of a city with a concentration of any type of ethnicity) or the newer definition (area of a city with a concentration of poor black people).

And I don't see what's humorous...
JJM   Thu Jan 19, 2006 10:22 pm GMT
"I'm done."

It's perfectly fine English.

So there you go - I'm finished.
Emily   Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:08 pm GMT
This is a very big issue where I come from. Yes, I come from the Philadelphia Region. [southern New Jersey] If "I'm done my homework" or "I'm done the dishes" is said around here, it sounds completely normal.

However, it's not grammatically correct. I spend a lot of time in Utah, and if I were to say that to someone, they would give me the strangest look ever! Though when i came back to New Jersey and tried to explain to my point to my friends, they didn't understand why that's wrong. It is wrong to say "I'm done my homework" but I dont know how to explain why it's wrong to them. Anyone know what to tell me?

The saying came to be from the saying "I've done my homework." We just simply changed I've to I'm over time. I'm not sure why, but it happened. You have to have a preposition in the sentace like "I'm done WITH the dishes."
Emily   Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:11 pm GMT
oh yeah.

[p.s]

<<My hunch is the same as Guest's who wrote "It looks like a contraction of "I'm done with my homework" and a mix-up with "I've done my homework".

It is hard to tell however if this is an example of imperfectly learned English in a ghetto environment or whether it was largely artificially perpetrated by a few people trying to be humorous.>>

I don't see why that's funny and it's not just the city of Philadelphia. I live about 40 minutes away from the city and thats about as far away from what you call "ghetto" as you can get. I swear, it's like hick ville here.
lowir   Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:31 am GMT
It's "I'm done WITH my homework"
but sometimes the WITH isn't pronounced clearly so it sound like:
"I'm done my homework"
maybe they were teen kids. My friends omit words a lot in their pronounciation. as long as the word isn't all that significant and you can understand the sentence w/o it.

or maybe they were saying "i've done my homework"