What's wrong with the phrase “remind them in which”?

Question

I thought it was a common phrase ... but Google doesn't agree.

Example sentence:

I don't want to write stories to let people escape reality but to remind them in which one they are.

Answer 1

First, a definition:

Remind verb 2 Cause (someone) to fulfil an obligation or to take note of something. - ODO

The dictionary provides some examples with that definition, which I'll sample from and number here for convenience:

1. ‘All catering staff have been reminded of the importance of adhering to these procedures.’
2. ‘Members are reminded to bring their competition entries with them for the meeting.’
3. ‘He will need to be reminded that his duty is to assist the court rather than Sarah.’
4. ‘They were all reminded what the real point of the evening was.’

Although remind is often used with of, to and that, sometimes (as in case 4), one can simply say "remind (person) X". I can't pin down the conditions fully at the moment, but it seems to work when X is a statement about reality. For example:

• remind him where he is
• remind her she is beautiful
• remind them when to go

In your case, X = "in which one they are". The reminder is about which reality "they are [in]". This is grammatically valid.

Answer 2

Try to enter the following in google search.

"remind them in which"

The results for me currently include your post and:

Tessa Vossen - Teaching and Teacher Learning
researchblog.iclon.nl/author/vossente/
[...]
29.06.2016 - Remind them in which classes the questionnaire has to be distributed. In general, remind them. And administer who returned how many ...