Could anyone solve my grammer problem?

Question

I'm a student in Taiwan. Recently, my classmate has asked me a grammer question, which makes me confused. Hope there's someone who could tell me about this as a native speaker.
Here's the question:
(a) My grandfather has died for five years.
Sentence (a) is not a correct one because the action "die" cannot last for five years. It's a momentary action, which ends right after it starts. So the correct one should be "My grandfather has been dead for five years."
The above explanation came from a grammer text book.
But.. how about this sentence?
(b) My sister has graduated from college for five years.
Is it correct? Accroding to grammers, the action "graduate" cannot last for five years, so obviously it's wrong. But I've seen many people using this sentence....
I'm wondering if we should wirte it as:
(c) My sister has been graduated from college for five years.
or
(d) My sister has been out of school for five years.

Could anyone give me advices? Thanks!

Answer 1

The problem is that the word "graduate" used to be a transitive verb and is now typically used as an intransitive verb. Officially, a school graduates its students. Thus, you wouldn't have said a student graduated from school, rather the school graduated her.

Because of that shift you could say (very formally) "My sister was graduated five years ago" or "My sister has been graduated for five years." Almost no native speaker would use either phrase however. They would say "My sister graduated five years ago."

Answer 2

Sentence C sounds acceptable but if you said it people would probably wonder about the sentence construction, but they would understand what you were saying.
Another way to put it:
My sister graduated from college five years ago.
The same can be said for example a.
"My grandfather died five years ago"
Example d is not specific enough.
It should say "My sister has been out of school for five years, because she graduated"
Example D leads the person to ask a question. Like why did she leave school?

Answer 3

The explanation for (a) is correct.

(b) just sounds odd. Pretty much anyone would understand what you meant, but no one would say it that way. More common would be "my sister graduated from college five years ago." To follow your book's explanation, graduation is a one-time thing, not a process, so you state when it happened. "For five years" describes an ongoing process.

You could say (c), but it's rather more formal than any native speaker would use except in extreme circumstances. While it is correct to say "has been graduated", no one ever says it that way.

(d) is just fine as it stands.

Answer 4

B and C are both incorrect. B for the reason you listed, and C because graduated is a verb, not an adjective (at least in the way it is used in the sentence.)

D is correct because "being out of school" is not a momentary action. You can be out of school indefinitely.

Answer 5

My sister graduated from college five years ago.

Best of luck to you! Enjoy Taiwan!!

Answer 6

Your textbook is right. Anyone who says "has graduated from college for five years" is wrong, and if you've seen this sentence frequently then it's been wrong every time. Of the options you list, only (d) is correct. "My sister graduated five years ago" would also be fine.
好不好？

Answer 7

It owuld either be "My sister has been out of school for five years" or "My sister graduated five years ago." If anyone has used the sentence, it is incorrect.

Answer 8

My sister graduated from college five years ago.

Its been five years since my sister graduated from college.

Why is it necessary to end each sentence with ..'for five years'. ?

Answer 9

I would say "My sister graduated from school five years ago."

Answer 10

d is a correct way to write it...or you could say - My sister graduated from college 5 years ago.