Grammar Girl here. I'm Minion Fuggedy and this week I have a quick and dirty tip about the word

Congratulations. A meaty middle about food names that have country names in them. And finally a

tidbit about tall poppy syndrome. A couple of weeks ago on the Grammar Girl Facebook page, people

were talking about the difference between graduated college and graduated from college, something we've

talked about here on the podcast before. And a region named Loriano commented that it bugs her

when people write congratulations with a D on graduation cards instead of congratulations

spelled properly with a T. Obviously it's a play on the word graduate which has a D, but it made

me wonder about the roots of the two words. Are they related? Congratulations comes from Latin.

The congratulations part comes from gratulari which means to give thanks or express joy. And when

you add the con part to the beginning you get the full Latin meaning which is to wish joy.

Gradulari comes from the Latin word gratuse which also gives us the words grace and gratitude.

So those three words congratulations grace and gratitude are all related.

Graduate on the other hand comes from a different Latin word, graduateuse which means to take a degree.

Through Latin the word graduate is also related to the word grade. It's just a coincidence that

graduate and congratulate sound the same in the middle. And that was your quick and dirty tip.

It may be cute to spell congratulations with a D for graduates, but the word is properly spelled

with a T. And the words congratulate and graduate aren't related to each other. They just happen

to sound similar. Before we get to the meaty middle about food names, even some meat dishes actually,

I'm excited to announce that grammar girl was just nominated for best ideas and education

podcast in the Academy of Podcasters awards. I don't need you to vote or anything like that. It's an

industry award and I'm just honored to be included. And that always makes me grateful for all of you

who listen and subscribe and tell your friends and write reviews. And also for the advertisers who

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