“She graduates high school this year.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions, Verbs

I often see or hear this and similar sentences.

Problem:
A preposition is missing.

Explanation:
I heard someone make the statement “She graduates high school this year.” the other day while talking about his daughter.

But the verb “graduate” means to receive a diploma or degree.

So “She graduates high school this year.” literally means “She receives a diploma or degree high school this year.”

This reveals the preposition that is missing from “She graduates high school this year.”

I believe that this omission is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to omit the required preposition than to include it.

And, as with yesterday’s blog post, this post illustrates a simple method for discovering whether a preposition is missing, excessive, or just right: Simply replace the verb with the verb’s definition.

Solution:
“She graduates from high school this year.”