An aim of this article is to highlight dynamical differences between the greedy, and hence the lazy, $\beta$-shift (transformation) and an intermediate $\beta$-shift (transformation), for a fixed $\beta \in (1, 2)$. Specifically, a classification in terms of the kneading invariants of the linear maps $T_{\beta,\alpha} \colon x \mapsto \beta x + \alpha \bmod 1$ for which the corresponding intermediate $\beta$-shift is of finite type is given. This characterisation is then employed to construct a class of pairs $(\beta,\alpha)$ such that the intermediate $\beta$-shift associated with $T_{\beta, \alpha}$ is a subshift of finite type. It is also proved that these maps $T_{\beta,\alpha}$ are not transitive. This is in contrast to the situation for the corresponding greedy and lazy $\beta$-shifts and $\beta$-transformations, for which both of the two properties do not hold.

Comment: v3: 19 pages, 6 figures, fixed typos and minor errors, to appear in Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. A