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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Graduate High School
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2015/07/31 - 1:41pm

I have a question about a linguistic construction that I had never encountered until I moved to Texas, but now I hear it used in many regions. I have always said “graduate from high school,” but around here, people say “graduate high school.” When did graduate become a transitive verb?

Ron Draney
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2015/07/31 - 7:41pm

It's even worse than you imagine. In some circles, the student graduates the school, and in others, the school graduates the student (Example: Central High graduated over 700 seniors last year).

The only close comparison I can think of is how a baby nurses at the mother's breast, and the mother nurses the baby.

deaconB
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2015/07/31 - 10:27pm

I was told, in rural Ohio, that we would not graduate high scxhool but rather, we would be graduateds from high school.  It's the conferring of a diploma or degree, and it's the school that does that, not thet student.

But other than that lecture from a spinster English teacher, everybody else in the school would ask, "when do you graduate?"

Typically, in the daily newspaper, they would announce "The following students will be graduated from Name High School on Sunday", but unless the name pof the school was mentioned in the sentence, Sam graduated in 1968, Dick will graduate in 2018.  They never say "will be graduated" or "graduate from" in stories not about commencement services.

Pretty consistent practice in southern Wisconsin, in central and NE Indiana, in NW, SW and central Ohio and in central Pennsylvania (which, for reasons that I don't understand, in not in the center of Pennsylvania.)

Robert
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2015/08/01 - 12:10am

Lida Rose, it can make sense if you let it be an intransitive verb followed by an   adverb:

What is the education level of this group?  They most of them graduated high school.

What is the level of distinction of her degree?  She graduated cum laude.

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