Which is the correct alternative? I have a little doubt concerning Russian language: a friend of mine asked me how I would translate the sentence "Yesterday I finished reading Жизнь и судьба" into Russian. I would say: "Вчера я закончила Жизнь и судьба", whereas my friend would use the verb кончить -> "Вчера я кончила Жизнь и судьба". I looked both verbs up in a dictionary, and кончить actually seems to be right; however, закончить sounds better to me.