Tóm tắt

• Remind of: một sự vật, hiện tượng xảy ra làm bạn chợt nhớ lại điều gì, ký ức tràn về.
• Remind about: lời nhắc nhở, nhắc đến điều gì đó để bạn khỏi quên.
• RE + MIND: quay trở lại trong tâm trí.

Giải thích

In the first case, what is causing the reminding is a TRIGGER EVENT. A trigger event is something which causes you to experience something in terms of something you are already familiar with. A trigger event can also cause a person psychologically to act, do or say something which may or may not be beneficial to the person. A typical trigger is smell, which has many esoteric meanings, not necessarily literal, while the other senses normally are tied to some specific thing.

For example, you eat turkey during Thanksgiving dinner. Yet turkeys can be cooked and eaten at any time of the year. So in the middle of the summer, you smell a neighbor cooking a turkey and it reminds you of your last Thanksgiving dinner and the conversations you had with your family. Smelling the turkey in summer triggered a memory of a past event. This is when we use the term REMIND OF. The turkey cooked during the summer reminded you of last Thanksgiving.

To be reminded about is typically used when ANOTHER PERSON brings something to your attention. A friend, co-worker, teacher or parent reminds you: it is time to get up out of bed to go to school; breakfast is ready; it is time to take a test; is your work assignment done? You are reminded about something you must do or are required to do, usually by another person. Although, if you use sticky notes, you can remind yourself of something you need to say or do, right? So it usually comes from someone else, but you can also do the reminding yourself.

Now, here is one more thing. Look at the word "remind". Let us rephrase it to its true meaning: RE-MIND. Do you now see what it means? It means for you to COME BACK TO your mind. That is what remind means, getting back to your mind.

Nguồn: một câu trả lời của Jim trên Yahoo Answers (nay không còn truy cập được).