<p>Doesn’t one graduate FROM high school/college? Seems quite often that I hear people say their S/D “graduated high school”. Why do they leave out ‘from’? Which version is correct? Maybe either way is acceptable? Can somebody please verify the grammar rule for me? If only I could go back to 9th grade English class and ask Miss Schiller!!</p>
<p>I suspect they leave out the “from” only as a matter of brevity. We see abbreviations like S, DD, LAC, and so here. Same thing.</p>
<p>To be a real stickler: David WAS graduated from high school. (Technically it’s not something you can do for yourself.) However, this correct usage is going out of fashion, sadly, because I think it’s an interesting distinction.</p>
<p>^^ ditto mythmom.</p>
<p>Sort of along the lines of … Josh BECOMES a bar mitzvah … not … Josh HAD a bar mitzvah!</p>
<p>My neighbor says…
My D went to Prom (instead of THE Prom) and
She went to campus (instead of THE campus)</p>
<p>It always sounds wrong to my ears but she is from a different part of the country. So is she wrong or is it just regional differences?</p>
<p>What does DD mean? I’ve always wondered. I know D means daughter and S means son, but what is DD and DS?</p>
<p>Dear daughter and dear son. (Would that they were always dears 
.</p>
<p>Went to prom instead of THE prom annoys me as well.</p>
<p>Modern colloquial usage :(</p>
<p>How about “prommers” instead of prom-goers?</p>
<p>Or, we “prommed” instead of we went to the prom?</p>
<p>Nouns are verbs; verbs are nouns. It’s all about sounding hip. I’m not sure they even teach grammar at school anymore!</p>
<p>From the web:</p>
<p>The verb graduate has denoted the action of conferring an academic degree or diploma since at least 1421. Accordingly, the action of receiving a degree should be expressed in the passive, as in She was graduated from Yale in 1998. This use is still current, if old-fashioned, and is acceptable to 78 percent of the Usage Panel. In general usage, however, it has largely yielded to the much more recent active pattern (first attested in 1807): She graduated from Yale in 1998. Eighty-nine percent of the Panel accepts this use. It has the advantage of ascribing the accomplishment to the student, rather than to the institution, which is usually appropriate in discussions of individual students. </p>
<p>When the institution’s responsibility is emphasized, however, the older pattern may still be recommended. A sentence such as The university graduated more computer science majors in 1997 than in the entire previous decade stresses the university’s accomplishment, say, of its computer science program. On the other hand, the sentence More computer science majors graduated in 1997 than in the entire previous decade implies that the class of 1997 was in some way a remarkable group. </p>
<p>The Usage Panel feels quite differently about the use of graduate to mean “to receive a degree from,” as in She graduated Yale in 1998. Seventy-seven percent object to this usage.</p>
<p>Dear Xiggi: As I’ve told you before we oldsters have different usages in our mind’s ear.</p>
<p>My D says went to prom with . . . so I’ve gotten used to it. If it’s short for promenade (a verb ) maybe this is technically correct.</p>
<p>I myself say campus and not “the campus.” I teach at one and we all say this. I was unaware of the issue. We’re in NY if that answers question about regionalism.</p>
<p>And here I always thought it was an East-West thing… I first heard it used this way: “she graduated high school” from my first friend from Jersey, so that’s how it always sounds to me! Out in the wild West, we graduated from high school or college …or juvenile hall or whatever. Xiggi, what’s your reference? I’d like to save it for future ammunition!
I my mind the “graduated high school” usage always brings up a visual of a graduated cylinder from chem lab, and someone carefully measuring their high school within it. I think mine was about 500 cc, more or less.</p>
<p>I say “campus” instead of “the campus,” and I say “graduated high school” instead of “graduated from high school” or “was graduated from high school.” I never thought about the fact that it’s grammatically incorrect (and I’m normally pretty good at noticing those things). I think I’ll stick with the common yet incorrect phrasing, though.</p>
<p>In terms of campus vs. the campus, people tend to talk about campus as being The Campus–as if it’s the name of a specific place instead of a description of a type of place. Almost everyone at college would say “I’m going to campus” or “I’m living on campus” without the “the.”</p>
<p>In other tidbits, I tend to say “I’m at the University of Chicago” when people ask where I go to school. Most people would say “I go to X School.” I only realized I said that a month or so ago.</p>
<p>People also live on my hometown instead of in it, which is pretty unusual.</p>
<p>Do you get “in line” or “on line” … that’s regional too.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with writing off some of these errors as a product of regionalism. (Not sure in line/on line is a grammar issue, but I could be wrong!)</p>
<p>Blantant errors such as these can also be excused as regionalism: “His mom left him stay out till midnight after the dance.” or “Just let the dirty dishes on the table; I’ll get them later.” I can’t imagine any educated person excusing either of thse errors for ANY reason! I don’t count myself as an expert, but I believe that being grammatically correct is a sign of a well-educated person and try to instill this mindset into my kids. It’s interesting to contemplate.</p>
<p>Another pet peeve: Would you loan me a couple dollars? OR Would you loan me a couple OF dollars? </p>
<p>As someone has said grammar isn’t really emphasized like it once was. Not many kids diagram millions of sentences like I did in 8th and 9th grades. I, for one, think we should regain some of that emphasis.</p>
<p>“Do you get “in line” or “on line” … that’s regional too.”
I was once in line ahead of a British fellow, who asked if he was standing in the right place by asking me “Are we on queue?” I knew what he meant, but did a little dance step and announced that no, he had missed his.
Sorry, this was in New Orleans: strong drinks were being served.</p>
<p>Oh, finally a place I can ask this question:</p>
<p>BBC news reports always say “X was taken by ambulance to hospital.” And I thought U.S. reporters said “X was taken by ambulance to the hospital.” But now it seems U.S. news reports have dropped the “the”. Am I imagining this or do I only listen to public radio news and they’ve decided the Brits were correct?</p>
<p>
Not to pick nits, but I always thought it was “Would you lend me a couple of dollars?”</p>
<p>This one doesn’t bother me that much, though; I’m still trying to get people to abandon the misuse of “I” (as in, “Between you and I”, or “They wrote the song specifically for Susan and I”). ARGGH! That one has even crept into the news reports!</p>
<p>Zip, the British have always said “hospital” instead of “the hospital.” This isn’t a matter of grammatically correct or not. I didn’t notice that American news was dropping the “the.” Perhaps they sort of skip over it while speaking to save time.</p>
<p>Another one that is missued a lot lately is “myself”. My boss, a college educated woman (and former school teacher) does it all the time. </p>
<p>Almost every memo we get has myself used incorrectly at least once as in “I will be off work tomorrow because Sally Jo and myself worked a lot of overtime this week” or " Lucy, Ethel and myself will be in a seminar all day Friday."</p>
<p>It has become a joke among the rest of us but who is going to correct the boss,lol?</p>