Dr. Grammarfuss on Graduation

Douglas G. Brown · #1 08-27-2018, 07:59 PM

All my life I heard that one "graduated from high school", college, etc.

Now I hear radio announcers saying one "graduated high school" , and this construction is even creeping into the press. Is this simple laziness, or some new edict from the grammar police?

How is this being said where you live? Just curious.

RCL · #2 08-27-2018, 09:19 PM

Long time no see, D. In Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and S Cal, where I've lived, it's FROM.The Brits often leave out connectives we favor.

Ann Drysdale · #3 08-28-2018, 01:27 AM

NO, Ralph, no. We hear it, too, but we are not solely to blame. The pedants among us regard this as an insidious thing which we believe is seeping across from your side of the Atlantic. A perceived evil is always another's fault.

It began with people being "diagnosed with" the conditions that had hitherto been the subject of diagnosis. Now people "protest" things rather than protesting againt them, and the verb has become confused with the noun as the stressed syllable no longer knows where to lay its head.

We "medal" in sporting contests rather than "win medals" and things are now "different to" in daily speech here, while the sheer "fromness" of the concept lies weeping in the gutter. The US "than" seems to me a better way to go here.

My point, Ralph, is that we are in danger of starting another Jaguar catfight, when our two great nations could combine in the pursuit of excellence. Together, we stand to gain a glittering prize; divided, we medal.
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