Thank you Edmond for setting me straight . I've always thought that "graduate college" was British usage and "graduate from" American. It's only lately that I've been hearing "graduate high school" in American English. As you correctly note, "graduate" is an IV. That's why Larry is uncomfortable trying to form a passive sentence with it.
David Brown
ESL/EFL teacher
Long Beach, CA
USA
--- On Sat 12/16, Edmond Wright < [log in to unmask] > wrote:
From: Edmond Wright [mailto: [log in to unmask]]
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:40:03 +0000
Subject: Re: usage question
>
Geoff,
As an Englishman I judge that we English would never
say 'graduate high
school', (1) for 'to graduate' is an intransitive verb in English English,
and (2) it is only used of graduating from the UNIVERSITY. We do not call
gaining one's 'GCSE' (General Certificate of Education -- at 16) or
'A-Level' (Advanced level GCSE -- at 18) 'graduating' at all. Most
secondary schools (only a minority of which are called 'high schools') hold
what is called a 'Speech Day' later the following year, a day on which a
visiting dignitary formally presents the GCSE and A-Level certificates and
any school prizes that are offered to the students of these two different
ages, who have left school at different times. Thus Speech Days have never
been referred to as performing 'graduation'.
Edmond
Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~elw33
Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256
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