Confusion caused alternative meanings of 'remind'

Question

In the context of this lesson, 'remind [someone] of [someone or something]' means 'put unwittingly [someone] in mind of the subject's resemblance to [someone else or something else]'. The meaning in French, although the grammatical construction is different from English in terms of direct and indirect objects, is the same as this.

But what about the alternative English usage 'remind of' meaning 'cause consciously [someone] to remember to give attention to [a person or thing]'. Often this is expressed in a sentence such as "Jack reminded me that my uncle is coming next week", but could be shortened to "Jack reminded me of [or about] my uncle's visit".

How would the last sentence be translated?

Accepted Answer

Agree, the lesson doesn’t specifically cover the deliberate act of ‘reminding someone of something’, rather than ‘to do something’.

However the basic construct is ‘to (actively) remind someone of/about (something) …’, or ‘to prompt someone to remember that (something) …’ Not unexpectedly there are several ways to express this.

wordreference may be helpful here, see the first 3 definitions and examples in particular :

https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/remind

In either language, the final sentence you are asking about, will only make complete sense in context.

Answer

In English, the word 'about' instead of 'of' determines the alternative meaning, whereas 'of' is ambiguous without context.

"Jack reminded me about my uncle's visit" is unambiguous. Does the French 'rappeler' include this meaning, and if so, how would you translate this sentence?

Answer

Disagree that ‘about’ removes ambiguity in English. At least in my part of the English-speaking world, this could still be ‘about’ a past or future visit.

Nonetheless, wordreference definition 3 addresses both ‘reminded of’ and ‘reminded about’.

Answer

Thanks, Maarten. WR does indeed clarify that 'rappeler' has both meanings in French as in English, and that the grammatical construction with 'de' is used in both.

Would you really say "Jack reminds me about John" when it means that Jack resembles John in some way?

Answer

Harry, no, not in the sense of ‘resemblance’.

Sorry for the confusion - I was referring to the ambiguity of ‘tense’ in the short sentence or fragment of conversation in this particular case - it could be a past or future visit being reminded of or about.