Breakdown of Он окончил школу.
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
школа
school
окончить
to finish, graduate from
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Questions & Answers about Он окончил школу.
Why is the word for school школу instead of школа?
Школу is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the sentence—it is the thing that he finished. For feminine nouns that normally end in -а (like школа), the ending changes to -у when used this way.
Why does the verb окончил end in -л?
In Russian, the past tense is formed by changing the verb's infinitive ending to an -л for masculine subjects (like он). If the subject were feminine (like она), the ending would be -ла (окончила).
Since our current lesson is about the future tense using быть, why couldn't we say Он будет окончить школу for 'He will finish school'?
The compound future tense (using forms of быть like будет) is only used with imperfective verbs (verbs focused on an ongoing process). The verb here is perfective because it describes a completely finished result. To make perfective verbs future, you do not use быть; you just conjugate them directly, like Он окончит школу (He will finish school).
Can I use the more common verb закончил here instead?
You could, but окончил is much more natural in this specific context. While both verbs mean 'finished', окончил is traditionally used specifically for graduating from or completing an educational program. Закончил is used for finishing general everyday tasks, like reading a book or doing a chore.