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Alex
Acabar vs terminar
Difference?
Jul 11, 2016 11:15 AM
Answers · 10
6
Hello Alex!
In majority of situations these words are synonyms. Both can be translated as "to finish", "to end", "to terminate", "to conclude", "to end up", "to be over". 
Examples: 
- Alex acabou o seu trabalho. [Alex finished his work]
- Alex terminou o seu trabalho. [Alex finished his work]
- O filme acabou. [The movie it's over]
- O filme terminou. [The movie it's over]
- A história deles acabou em casamento. [Their history ended up in marriage]
- A história deles terminou em casamento. [Their history ended up in marriage]
 
However, there are some situations where ACABAR is more specific and is not interchangeable with TERMINAR:
1) When you want to give the idea of "to destroy". Examples:
- Ele acabou com o meu trabalho. [He destroyed my work]
- Ela acabou com o meu brinquedo. [She destroyed my toy]
2) When you want to give the idea of "to give a final touch". Examples: 
- Ele acabou o trabalho que eu comecei. [He gave a final touch on the work I started.]
- Ele deu o acabamento na obra. [He gave the final touch on his artistic creation.]
NOTE: you can see that say "Ele acabou meu trabalho" and "Ele acabou com meu trabalho" have two totally different meanings 
3) When you want to give a idea of "to consume completely". Examples:
- Em breve a floresta vai acabar. [Soon the forest will be finished]
- O queijo acabou. [The cheese is over]
4) When you want to give an idea of something just hapenned. Examples:
- Ele acabou de chegar. [He just arrived]
- Ele acabou de terminar o trabalho. [He just finished the work]
NOTE: you see that in this context you can even combine ACABAR and FINISH as they are not interchangeable when acabar has this meaning.
July 13, 2016
2
Both mean "finish", however "acabar" also means "just" like in "I just saw her" (Eu acabei de ver ela).
Examples
Eu acabei/terminei meu teste - I finished my test.
A aula acaba/termina as 12:00 - The class finishes at 12:00
Eu acabei de vir do hotel - I just came from the hotel. 
Hope I could be helpful.
July 11, 2016
2
There is no difference. They are synonyms.
July 11, 2016
You can also use a dictionary if you have questions and just after ask. I use a lot of dictionaries, I like this one for Portuguese: https://www.priberam.pt/DLPO/Default.aspx
July 29, 2016
Terminar - to terminate, to complete, to finish, to give an end to (with sucess).
Acabar - to  to not leave anything, to finish, just have made something
July 14, 2016
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Alex
Language Skills
English, Portuguese
Learning Language
Portuguese
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