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While "transfer is complete" and "transfer is completed" are more or less clear for me, I can't understand what "Transfer complete" means against other phrases. What part of speech complete belongs in "Transfer complete"? Why it is used without is?

aryndin
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    "Transfer complete" is just "headlinese" - ungrammatical short forms used to save space, in headlines, electronic status messages, road signs, etc. – FumbleFingers Jul 06 '16 at 21:00
  • ...for the other two, see [complete or completed](http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/90801/complete-or-completed) – FumbleFingers Jul 06 '16 at 21:03
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    Although most answers on that earlier question favour ***completed***, I think it's a slightly different context. I'd prefer ***complete*** (with no verb) in your context. Not just because it's one letter shorter, although that could be a factor in why it's more common (not that I'm able to easily *prove* that, but I'm pretty sure the shorter version *will* be more common as a computer-generated status message). I'd compare it to, say, *Tank full* as opposed to *Tank filled* in a car fuel tank status message. – FumbleFingers Jul 06 '16 at 21:11

1 Answers1

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In your example

Transfer complete

is just a shortened form of

Transfer is completed
Transfer is finished

and could just as easily have been

Transfer done

without loss of meaning.

Boris Verkhovskiy
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Peter
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