Here’s a tricky little communication problem.

We received an email asking this question:

Could you please help me to clarify a grammar dispute? Many people frequently use the phrase “I’m done” when they have completed a task. This never seems correct to me since it is the task which is done and not the person. Surely they should say either “It’s done” or “I’m finished.” Could you please tell if “I’m done” is correct and, if not, could you please explain clearly how the rules of grammar are broken by this phrase?

Thanks for any help you are able to offer.

I replied, but my message was bounced as spam (several times, several ways). I’m printing my answer here, hoping the writer will read it (and that others will be interested):

Your question gets into one of the many gray areas of our language.

The older I get, and the more I work with language, the less inclined I am to use the words “correct” or “incorrect.” Instead, I’m more likely to use words like “standard” and “nonstandard,” or “appropriate” and “inappropriate,” with lots of room for personal and regional preferences.

Additionally (and this is closer to your question), there are “levels of usage,” which include vulgar, slang, colloquial, obsolete, dialect, old-fashioned, rare, and so on. My Webster’s New World Dictionary lists a few more, and includes this useful note: “None of the modes of using language in the cases cited is in an absolute sense more correct than any of the others. Each is right for its occasion and any attempt to interchange styles can result in inappropriate language.”

That’s the gray area you hit upon—just what is “inappropriate” language?

Now for my opinion—Saying “I’m done” is not incorrect, but it could be considered slang (it’s certainly informal), and would likely be thought inappropriate in almost any formal exchange. To me, the words connote not only informality, but exasperation or impatience—as in “I’ve tried many times to convince him to do that, and he absolutely refuses. Now I’m done.”

Hope this helps.

P.S. One of my favorite books for questions like yours—Webster’s Dictionary of American Usage. has almost a full page on done, and the ruling on the usage you asked about can be summed up in one sentence: “The construction is standard.” The writer notes that Theodore Bernstein objected to it in 1958, but by 1971 and 1977 was on the way to accepting it. The comments include quotes from Mark Twain (“I am done with official life…”), William Faulkner (“…that character is not done”) and a writer forCosmopolitan (“…as soon as she is done”). See why I like the book? It’s thorough.

Still, you are as entitled to your opinion as any of those people, and I agree that the construction should be restricted almost entirely to informal usage.

David Hatcher