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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 – 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.

Peter
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