“Discuss With” Needs an Object

“Discuss with” needs an object

We don’t “discuss with” people in general.  We discuss THINGS with people (or, in grammatical terms, we discuss a “direct object”).

Do not use the following:

I want to discuss with you tomorrow.

We had many opportunities to discuss with other students.

He discussed with my sister yesterday.

Instead, use the following (the object is underlined each time):

I want to discuss my score with you tomorrow.

We had many opportunities to discuss politics with other students.

He discussed the accident with my sister yesterday.

I want to discuss it with her.

Or, if you want to get fancy (but a bit stilted):

I plan to discuss with each student what they will present in class.

Remember to discuss with your students the importance of arriving on time.

Or:

That is something I want to discuss with you.

Your test score is something I want to discuss with you.

Alternative – “Talk With”

If you want to say that you communicated with someone and don’t want to mention an object, just use “talk.”  It is totally okay to say:

I want to talk with you tomorrow.

We had many opportunities to talk with other students.

He talked with my sister yesterday.

Conclusion

I see this mistake about once per day in TOEFL essays.  Don’t be like all of those dummies.