Is "please to remind" a valid construction?

Question

One of my collegues (not native english speaker) always uses this contruction:

please to remind
please to confirm
please to take note
please to contact me

To me (not native english speaker) it sounds gramatically incorrect, but I wonder whether it is a formal construction I maybe just don't know.

As you note, these are better without the "to". Even if "please to remind" is grammatically correct, if I hear it I know that the speaker is not a native speaker. — GEdgar, Jul 05 '13 at 14:44
@GEdgar, "please to remind", "please to take note", etc. are grammatically correct? How is that possible? It sounds SOOO wrong to me that I can't believe it's grammatical. "Please remind me (of....)" or "Remind me, please(, of...)" are the only variables for that brief phrase that seem grammatical. If you're right, you can knock me over with a feather. :-O — Kristina Lopez, Jul 05 '13 at 14:49
This is a regionalism. Regionalisms are neither valid nor invalid: they are normal in a region, awkward elsewhere. — MetaEd, Jul 05 '13 at 17:52
This question appears to be off-topic because it is more suited for http://ell.stackexchange.com/ — p.s.w.g, Jul 05 '13 at 21:32

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 05 '13 at 15:03

3

You cannot ever follow please with the to of a to-infinitive. It just takes the bare infinitive of the imperative mode.

answered Jul 05 '13 at 15:03

tchrist

134,759

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 05 '13 at 21:19

2

"Please to" looks like old modern English, rather than incorrect or a regionalism. Usage has gone steadily downhill since 1700. The short phrasing used to show up in telegrams, where the sender was charged by the word.

answered Jul 05 '13 at 21:19

Wayfaring Stranger

8,181

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 05 '13 at 14:57

1

No, they don't sound correct the way they stand. It'd be okay to say: I am pleased to remind you... Or as @Kristina said: remind me please, etc.

answered Jul 05 '13 at 14:57

Noah

13,490

Thanks for putting *"please(d)"* with *"to remind"* in a context that didn't make me want to cringe, Noah! :-) – Kristina Lopez Jul 05 '13 at 15:59

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 05 '13 at 15:49

No, although it is syntactically correct, it does not make sense as an instruction.

Here, "to remind" is an infinitive and "please" is an adverb (you can replace it with "kindly" with exactly the same meaning). Compare to an equivalent grammatical construction with different words:

Quickly, to dance

or

to dance quickly

That is understandable, and grammatically correct, but you couldn't use it as an instruction. However:

Quickly, dance

without the "to" works fine as an instruction, just like:

Please remind me

Is "please to remind" a valid construction?

4 Answers4

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