Different Meanings but Frequently Confused Verbs: (to) REMIND or (to) REMEMBER:

As similar as these two verbs are, their meanings are quite different. For non-native speakers of English, not knowing this distinction can identify you as such.

In some cases, you can be saying something you don't even mean to say.

It is not correct, for example, to say "Remember me to mail this letter." Why is this not correct?

What's the difference?

First, let's do a pre-test. Which verb - remember or remind - goes in each blank? The sentences and short paragraphs below were written by ESL students.

• Do I hate anyone?I have nothing to hate and nobody to hate. Hatred can only hurt me so I always ________  myself not to hate anyone or anything.

• The book The Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter, told me a lot that I hadn't known about the lives of the indigenous people of North America. It also ________ me of my native China, the way it used to be, and the way I perceive it now. . .

• When the autumn came. The wind blew and picked her petals off and blew them away. The wind left only one petal for him to ________ her by, he held onto her image for a short time, but then winter came and pressed against his mind and buried his dream.
  
  

One way of looking at these two verbs is to know that the verb (to) recall is similar in meaning to the verb (to) remember. Both imply thinking about something that occurred in the past. People who have developed certain forms of dementia have difficulty REMEMBERING. That is, the cannot recall what has happened in the past. We talk about short-term memory and long-term memory: These two forms of memory describe rembering things that happened recently and things that happened a long time ago.

The concept of (to) remind implies necessarily looking to the future. REMIND has a direct object and an indirect object: Somebody is reminding somebody of something. In the first example, I always ________  myself not to hate anyone or anything the only verb that can fit here is "remind". The person wants to remind WHO? of WHAT? WHO is  the writer herself, and OF WHAT is NOT TO HATE ANYONE OR ANYTHING. This verb has a direct - myself - and an indirect - not to hate anyone or anything - object.

Hence, I always remind myself not to hate anyone or anything.

In the second example, It also ________ me of my native China, the way it used to be, and the way I perceive it now In the second example, the only verb that can fit here is "remind". The person wants to remind WHO? of WHAT? WHO is the writer and WHAT is "the way her native China used to be and the way she perceives it now. This verb has a direct - me - and an indirect - the way China used to be - object.

Hence, It also reminds me of my native China, the way it used to be, and the way I perceive it now. . 

 In the third example, The wind left only one petal for him to ________ her by, as only one object, her. The writer thinks about the past and recalls the past.

Hence, The wind left only one petal for him to remember her by

 Look at this news headline:

18 years later, Americans stop to remember the September 11 attacks

We also have this headline:

New HIV strain reminds us that innovation is urgent and fundamental

The opposite of "remember" is "forget," as in "I forgot to mail the letter."

The opposite of "to remind" is "not to remind," as in "Don't remind me!"

ALL ABOUT A DEMOCRACY: (to) SPEAK OUT

People no longer stand on a soap box to make public their thoughts on any issue or person. The world has changed and there are lots of other ways of doing this now, not only with newspapers and radio and television, but with the world wide web. The idea of making ones thoughts public for any, or for all, to hear, is here to stay. Take a look at this one headline:

Why ex-FBI lawyer targeted by Trump is speaking out

This two-word verb is intransitive, as you see in the headline above.

The following sentence from that news story shows how to express a more complete treatment:

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, whose anti-Trump text messages were released to Congress, became a target of President Trump's tweets. She spoke out to The Daily Beast about her decision to go public.

Also, unlike most of the other two-word verbs that we've been discussing, this one does not have a noun counterpart. It's used only as a verb.

Let's look at some other examples from the news that reflect issues of our times:

Most Americans say it’s OK for professional athletes to speak out publicly about politics

Of course the issue raised in the above article indicates that a person doesn't have to be vocally speaking in order to speak out, as the image below shows.

In reading the article, what are several recent events that sparked the public discussion about whether or not it's okay for professional athletes to speak out publicly about politics? You may have to follow the hyperlinks to be able to answer.  If you are familiar with any of those events, did you have an opinion about it at the time each occurred?

Were there times when you have spoken out publicly on an issue? Tell us what those were!


The last example we will provide may be familiar to some of you.

U of R Students Speak Out After Hong Kong, Taiwanese Flags Moved in Campus Hall

U of R Students Speak Out After Hong Kong, Taiwanese Flags Moved in Campus Hall

U of R Students Speak Out After Hong Kong, Taiwanese Flags Moved in Campus Hall

U of R Students Speak Out After Hong Kong, Taiwanese Flags Moved in Campus Hall

U of R Students Speak Out After Hong Kong, Taiwanese Flags Moved in Campus Hall

Betrayed by the Big Four: whistleblowers speak out

An FT investigation reveals a culture of fear at the world’s leading accounting firms

The news is full of incidences when people speak out about issues and events that affect them and others and overcome the fear that has previously caused them to be silent.