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Graduated versus Graduated From
Episode 107: May 16, 2008

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Grammar Girl here. Today's topic is graduation.

Word up! I can't believe it's already May. Graduation season is around the corner, which means my inbox will soon be full of complaints about the phrase "graduated college." And those complainers are right to be annoyed.

For example, Becky from Sacramento wrote in last year to say that it's like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard when she hears people say something like He graduated high school in 1988. "Is it correct to omit the preposition [from]?" she asks.

No, Becky, it's not correct. The sentence should read He graduated from high school in 1988.

At first I thought this topic was too narrow to deserve a whole podcast. I haven't really heard the phrase "graduated college" or "graduated high school" much myself, but apparently I just don't get out enough because when I did a Google search, the phrase "graduated college" was twice as popular as the phrase "graduated from college." Twice! The wrong way of saying it showed up twice as often. I scrolled through the results for "graduated college" hoping perhaps I hadn’t thought of a saying in which the two words just happened to show up next to each other, but alas, every result I looked at was a student talking about how they had just graduated college. I then realized I was going through the five stages of grief.

Scrutinizing the results was actually the first stage--denial. I really couldn't believe that the wrong wording would be twice as common.

Then came anger. What kind of education are these kids getting? It's a disgrace!

I skipped bargaining and went straight to depression. If it's really that bad out there, what is the point of even doing a grammar podcast? Nobody cares. Nobody listens. Its a lost cause irregardless of what Squiggly and myself cogitate about the matter*.

And although this might be stretching the analogy of the five stages of grief, I suppose this podcast is a form of acceptance. It is bad out there, but we can still do our part. People do listen. So listen closely: If you go around saying you graduated college, you sound illiterate. The correct way to say it is that you graduated FROM college. Here's why:

"To graduate" is a verb, and it can be both transitive and intransitive. Remember that a transitive verb takes an object and an intransitive verb doesn’t. Remember, an object is the thing or person the verb is transferring action to--the thing the subject is taking action on.

When you say that someone graduated from a specific college you are using the intransitive form of "to graduate" because the verb has no object. Let's say Squiggly got a degree from Burrow College. Although it's a bit archaic, the formal way to say this using the intransitive form of the verb "to graduate" is to say, "Squiggly was graduated from Burrow." The more modern way to say it and still be correct is "Squiggly graduated from Burrow." You need the "from." Squiggly graduated FROM Burrow. The shortest form of this sentence would be "Squiggly graduated." If you think about it that way, you can see that "from Burrow" isn't an object, it's just a prepositional phrase that tells you more about where Squiggly graduated from.

The thing is, when you say, "Squiggly graduated Burrow," you've turned "to graduate" into a transitive verb. By definition, the act of graduating is something a school does to a student, not something a student does to a school. Schools graduate students. You could say that Burrow graduated 600 students this year. However, if you say, “Squiggly graduated Burrow,” you're making Squiggly the subject and Burrow the object and saying that Squiggly did something to the college. It's possible Squiggly did many things to the college during his tenure there. He may have damaged the college, delighted the college, or desecrated the college--but he didn't graduate the college.

I don't know why so many people have taken to dropping the "from" and are going around saying they graduated college, but it really is wrong. Do your alma mater a favor and make your English instructors proud. Tell people you graduated from college or high school.

Questions and comments for me go to feedback@quickanddirtytips.com or the voicemail line at 206-338-GIRL. You can also read the full transcript of this podcast at quickanddirtytips.com, where you can leave comments and check out the other great podcasts. Also, in case you haven't noticed, we have a great guest host for the Money Girl show--Andrew Horowitz. He's the author of The Disciplined Investor, which is available through a link on the Money Girl section of our site and at his website, thedisciplinedinvestor.com. This week he's helping people avoid the most common investing mistakes.

Finally, there's a sentence in this show that contains at least four errors. I included it as a joke, but if it didn't jump out at you, head over to the website to find it in the transcript. That's all. Thanks for listening.

*That's a grammar joke. I tried to write the most incorrect sentence possible to show that I was depressed.

Resources

The American Heritage Dictionary entry on “graduate”
Patricia O'Connor, author of Woe Is I on “graduate”
Paul Brians, author of Common Errors in English Usage, on “graduate”

Comments (33) for Graduated versus Graduated From | Subscribe to Comment

Lisa Says:
6/15/2008 7:01:59 AM

More on this: http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/0147.html

rpmason Says:
6/6/2008 11:47:47 AM

The Graduate wrote "...in which case 'Squiggly graduated' is as incorrect as 'Squiggly graduated college.'" True. It should be 'Squiggly was graduated' like 'the board was measured' example in my last comment.

rpmason Says:
6/6/2008 11:29:59 AM

Let's take another tack. Graduate has a connotation of something being measured, so work with me here. "Bartholomew measured the pine board." You can say 'the board was measured by Bartholomew' but you can't say 'the board measured Bartholomew'. Hence 'Barrow College graduated Squiggly' or 'Squiggly [was graduated by... or ...graduated from] Barrow College'. Does that help?

The Graduate Says:
6/5/2008 4:06:28 PM

If "[b]y definition, the act of graduating is something a school does to a student, not something a student does to a school" how is the sentence "'Squiggly graduated'" correct? If graduating is the act of conferring a degree or something similar, how can a person ever 'graduate'? Clearly the verb 'graduate' has a different meaning when a person does it as opposed to when a degree-granting institution does it. Therefore, why isn't it true that "Squiggly did something to the college" in the same way Squiggly passed the exam: he measured up to the standards of the object of the verb. Maybe there's an argument to be made that 'graduate' should remain an intransitive verb for some other reason; however, relying on the premise that "the act of graduating is something a school does to a student" isn't sufficient unless schools are the only things that can graduate, in which case "Squiggly graduated" is as incorrect as "Squiggly graduated college."

Tom Says:
6/3/2008 10:35:24 PM

I remember an ancient column (entitled "On Language") by William Safire in the New York Times where he discussed the word "graduate". He claimed that it's correct to say "the college graduated John", but clearly not that "John graduated college", since "graduated" is like "measured", and the college, by graduating John, assured the world that John measured up to some standard. Thus it would be correct to say, "I was graduated by UCLA", meaning I measured up to UCLA's standards. But the student would never measure the college.

donna Says:
5/28/2008 10:51:59 AM

I don't get it, what's wrong with cogitate?

M.Z.M.Ibrahim Says:
5/23/2008 7:58:43 PM

"et tu, Brute". " I scrolled through the results for "graduated college" hoping perhaps I hadn’t thought of a saying in which the two words just happened to show up next to each other, but alas, every result I looked at was a student talking about how they had just graduated college". How you, and countless millions of other Americans can place a "singular"(a student) and refer to it as a plural(how they had..)is truly beyond me. I fully understand, but do not appreciate, that you are, to put it kindly, are avoiding having to say(or write) "he or she, or he/she" 'to save time?' while avoiding the gender problem. In the process though the most glaring mistake that gets perpetuated by one and all becomes the norm. Please do something about it Miss Fogarty. Otherwise, please accept my congratulations on your more-than-worthwhile efforts. I enjoyed this "Podcast?" I will look out for more. MZM P.S: I had noted your "...irregardless..." sentence but left it out when I saw your subscript. That was good.

Jose Says:
5/23/2008 4:45:42 PM

You have a great wit! I was reading the transcript as I was listening to the podcast and gasped when I hit the incorrect sentence. I thought you might have hit your head or were on some strong allergy pills (as I have been). I totally cracked up at the end of the broadcast! you are hysterical.

C-William Elliot Says:
5/23/2008 9:43:38 AM

GG: How about: "Suffice to say," vs. "Suffice it to say"?

C-William Elliott Says:
5/23/2008 9:41:02 AM

GG: How about: "Suffice to say" vs. "Suffice it to say"?

Teri Greene Says:
5/23/2008 5:32:38 AM

Re: "If you go around saying you graduated college, you sound illiterate." I'm in favor of grammar, and lament its decline and the increasing futility of quacking about it. But I've learned that sometimes you can convince people by telling them what's practical. F'rinstance, my sweetie, one of the wisest women on the planet and for several years an ESL teacher, tells her students: "There's one word you must learn to say correctly: 'library' - because once the word 'liberry' has left your mouth, you've failed the job interview." tg

Teri Greene Says:
5/23/2008 5:32:01 AM

Jason Says:
5/22/2008 1:55:20 PM

This post initially caused me to think, "Why wouldn't it be ok to drop an implied word in casual publication (such as in a web post or conversation)?" I consistently see Newspapers add implied words in brackets to quotes from other famous and important people who are not subsequently painted as illiterate. Then I started to read the comments of this show to determine if there was a semantic difference between the two phrases that would justify the requirement. Sure enough, GG pointed out that to graduate the school would _mean_ something different, as in: "As an inspector, it was my job to graduate XYZ High School from C rating to A rating." I think [that] I can see both sides of the argument. For casual usage, it's pretty clear to me from context that the "from" is implied in most cases here. If the sentence conveys a clear message with just, "He graduated college." with an implied "[from]" is it still technically wrong? If it's not correct, then why and when is it legal to drop implied words? I was under the impression that if a word adds no meaning or clarity in the context of the message, then it can be left out (since it is implied). If that's the rule, [then] I can make the case that the word "from" changes the meaning of "graduate" which suggests [that] it's required. I could just as easily argue that usage of graduate with an object is so rare that the other phrase makes sense on its own as well. GG, please elaborate on this to help me understand if and when implied words may be dropped. Also, please forgive any grammar faux pas above. I struggled with trying to express this clearly and include examples of what I think are acceptable uses of implied words (see bracketed words). Thanks. I really get a lot from listening to your insightful grammar tips!

Millie Says:
5/21/2008 10:09:53 PM

I'm so glad that sentence was a joke. When I heard it, I was about to turn you off, but decided to double-check the website first. The transcript had just loaded on my computer when I reached the end of the podcast, where you disclosed your sentence. What a relief!

rpmason Says:
5/21/2008 5:12:23 PM

John, I'll shake your hand on this one. It was an interesting discussion and I hope it's one that some of GG's readers find useful.

John Says:
5/21/2008 4:47:17 PM

I agree, and I never said that direct "graduate" was standard in prose. My (badly made) point is that rather than trying to rationalize the fact that direct "graduate" is deprecated in terms of transitivity and subjects and objects, GG would be better off looking at direct vs oblique constructions a la Zwicky.

rpmason Says:
5/21/2008 4:34:29 PM

John, and conversely, some uses with 'from' (or 'on' or 'of') being non-standard doesn't automatically make 'I graduated BC" standard. Zwicky doesn't overtly mention the slight differences in meaning within 'approve (of)' or within 'play (on)'. I can *approve of* the message but I can't *approve* it. I can *play on* a piano but I can't *play* it -- not even Chopsticks. :-(

John Says:
5/21/2008 1:21:20 PM

rpmason: I am suggesting that "graduate~graduate from" might show the same direct~oblique distinction that other pairs do. For instance Zwicky's example of "play the piano~play on the piano". Noting that other uses without "from" are non-standard doesn't seem relevant, since there are uses without the preposition that are standard.

Erin B Says:
5/21/2008 12:40:57 PM

I love that "Word Girl" is your new sponsor. What a great partnership! My kids are crazy for the program and have learned a lot, just as I love your podcast and have learned a lot. But did you really just say "irregardless"? Is that really any better or worse than "graduated high school"? Language is always moving and changing. "Irregardless" is nonstandard at this point, but as your (I assume) unconscious use of it shows, it won't stay that way. I wouldn't be surprised to see "graduate high school" go the same way. That said, if we want to impress people, have them take our words seriously, we should try to conform to standard English...and not beat each other up too much when we slip.

Leah Says:
5/20/2008 1:27:45 PM

I think that your grammar joke gave me palpitations. As much as I tried, I couldn't pay attention to the remainder of the podcast. With the explanation that it was, indeed, purposeful, I've been able to listen to the podcast in its entirety. As usual, it's great!

rpmason Says:
5/20/2008 12:30:38 PM

Hi John. Zwicky discussed the construct "I approve (of) this message". Approving something and approving *of* something mean different things. In the case of "I graduated (from) BC", the meaning is the same with or without 'from'. In that vein Zwicky says that "depart San Francisco" (without the 'from') is "decidedly non-standard". That said, after 20 or 30 years of discussions, "I graduated BC" may become standard. Aside: I work in business. Ten years ago, I changed every instance of the verbed 'impact'. These days, I change it only about a third of the time. See, even I can deal with changing language. :-)

Russ Matthews Says:
5/19/2008 1:53:38 PM

Thank you for clearing this up. I had actually never thought about it much, once something is so deeply entrenched in vernacular, it stops sounding wrong. I appreciate the tip!

John in Seattle Says:
5/19/2008 1:33:46 PM

I've never heard that this is an error before. Here's a timely headline: "Former Japanese-American students graduate UW after a 66-year wait" http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/363654_degree19.html

Keith Says:
5/19/2008 2:19:06 AM

I wanted to leave a quick note about performing searches on Google. When you search for a phrase like "graduated from college" (or "graduated college" for the purposes of comparison) it's important to include the quotation marks. If you include these, the world isn't quite as dark a place as you made out on this episode. The correct format returns ~2.1M results and the incorrect format returns ~1.5M. Still not good, but at least the majority are correct.

John Says:
5/16/2008 5:09:31 PM

that should of course be: direct "graduate" without "from" has been called an error since 1959.

John Says:
5/16/2008 5:02:19 PM

rpmason, I think the remarks on oblique and direct do apply. GG is arguing that you need "from" - that is, the direct use of "graduate" is wrong. She is repeating the standard prescriptivist line on this issue, but she's trying to rationalize it by talking about the semantics of schools graduating students. The fact is that there is no reason for this prescription. There are differences between direct and indirect usages, as Zwicky shows, and in this case one is favoured and one is not. It's not about semantics or logic, and it's certainly not evidence that no one cares about grammar, like GG says. It's simply that one is favoured and one is not - nothing more. "graduate from" has been called an error since 1959. It occurs frequently in speech, but it is still uncommon in edited prose.

rpmason Says:
5/16/2008 3:34:01 PM

John, I don’t see the relevance of your link. Arnold Zwicky's arguments about direct and oblique don't apply. Now this argument of his might apply "...but many of these innovations are, at least at the moment, marginal (direct 'depart' in 'depart San Francisco') or decidedly non-standard (direct 'abscond' in 'abscond the money')".

Jared Says:
5/16/2008 2:52:52 PM

I didn't realize it was a joke when you said it, but I was flabbergasted that Grammar Girl would even use the word irregardless in a sentence! I was thinking it's a shame that dictionaries are now including definitions for this (and other incorrect words) which eventually makes it seem like a correct word (i.e. regardless is already a negative). I hope all is not lost and that grammarians don't change the rules for what appears to be commonly accepted incorrect grammar!

Eric Says:
5/16/2008 12:58:45 PM

Language is not static. Its usage determines the norms for the next generation. Once misuse is common, it becomes the accepted. While for a period of transition, it is looked at with disdain, evolution of the language will never cease. Previous misspellings are now the accepted, and even preferred, form for some words. Within technical industry the word for a sensing-device is "gage" because some English-challenged engineer decades ago dropped the "u" and everyone copied his work (at least that is my story). Grammarians ought not worry about society evolving the language. They need to define the usage as it occurs. Dropping a preposition is similar to the English dropping the "the" article from "the hospital."

John Says:
5/16/2008 9:43:02 AM

"Scrutinizing the results was actually the first stage--denial. I really couldn't believe that the wrong wording would be twice as common." Perhaps a more sensible response would be to revise your opinion of what you consider "wrong". http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=156

Sara Says:
5/16/2008 8:55:43 AM

This may have been addressed in a previous post, but my biggest pet peeve from grads is when someone says, "I'm an AU alumni." It's like saying, "I am people." Furthermore, alumn is really incorrect as well; you are either an alumnus or an alumna. Am I the only one who took any Latin in school? Probably. :) (FYI, in case I really am, an alumnus is a male and an alumna is a female.)

Beth Says:
5/16/2008 7:20:12 AM

I think you should teach "graduated from." Don't make your students English speakers with incorrect grammar. (But there is nothing wrong with splitting infinitives. I believe Grammar Girl tackled that topic recently.)

Kattis Says:
5/16/2008 3:02:02 AM

What do you think about teaching English as a foreign language, should we teach "graduated from ...." or just "graduated", since graduated without the preposition does seem to be the most common way of saying it. I teach English at a Swedish school, and I always struggle with deciding if I should teach that split infiniteves and things like that are OK or not. They are not correct according to the grammar book, but they are often very common when native speakers write texts.