Is "Please be reminded to ..." a valid construction?


I received an email today with the following sentence:



Please be reminded to bring your basketball gear in.



He was subsequently made fun of by a co-worker:



'Please be reminded' - Will you be doing the reminding, or should I expect somebody else to be reminding me?



I am wondering if:



  1. the original sentence is valid and unambiguous, or if

  2. the interpretation made by his co-worker is valid due to ambiguity in the semantic meaning of the original sentence.



Answer



The sentence is grammatical: a passive construction does not necessarily need an agent. That said, as others have commented, it’s probably not the most effective way of putting it.


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