Want to have finished

Question

"I want to have finished learning my lesson by Monday".Is this sentence grammatically correct ?Is it the same as saying "I want to finish learning my lesson by Monday" ?

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

Debpriya De"I want to have finished learning my lesson by Monday".
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
Is it the same as saying "I want to finish learning my lesson by Monday"?
Yes it's correct, and yes it means the same.
If you say that you want to HAVE FINISHED doing something BY a certain deadline (date or time), you're saying that at some time in the future, you will HAVE FINISHED doing it, and you want that future time to be BEFORE the deadline.
You could also say "I want to HAVE a project or a job FINISHED (or have it DONE)" by a certain deadline, which means exactly the same thing.

If you say that you want to FINISH doing something BY a certain deadline, you're saying the same thing really, but in a simpler way.
I would normally use the second way, but the first way is perfectly OK. There is a subtle difference - the first way puts more emphasis on the final completion of the task, but the difference is so subtle that I can't really explain it properly.
BTW you shouldn't put a space between a word and the punctuation mark that follows it.
"Is this sentence grammatically correct ?" - wrong, the space before "?" shouldn't be there.
"Is this sentence grammatically correct?" - right.

CalifJim · Answer

Debpriya De"I want to have finished learning my lesson by Monday".
Is this sentence grammatically correct ?

Yes.

Debpriya DeIs it the same as saying "I want to finish learning my lesson by Monday" ?

Almost exactly the same. Only the viewpoint is different.

want to have finished looks back at the action from a point in the future -- that point in the future when you will be able to say "I have finished".

want to finish looks forward at the action from the present.

CJ

Want to have finished

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