Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

Please be advised you have until Friday of this week to be finished.

I understood what this sentence means. But can you separate the sentence into phrases or clauses?

If I separate it, one is "please be advised you", another is "until Friday of this week", the other one is "to be finished". Where can I put the "have"?

I mean I need an explanation about that sentence grammatically.

share|improve this question
1  
"Please be advised you" doesn't make sense in English. – RegDwighт♦ Sep 28 '12 at 9:18
@RegDwighт: Please be advised you're on shaky ground there. I might advise that you shouldn't delete the word "that" in my first sentence - but that's a stylistic choice which imho is less defensible in this second sentence anyway! The most unnatural aspect of OP's sentence is that native speakers would normally end it with "...to finish", not "...to be finished". – FumbleFingers Sep 28 '12 at 13:36
@FumbleFingers I was not talking about "please be advised you verb". That's precisely what the OP fails to parse the sentence as. He is talking about "please be advised you", period. And then proceeds to wonder what a verb is doing there at all. That makes no sense with or without a that. – RegDwighт♦ Sep 28 '12 at 13:40
Well, Please be advised is an almost irrelevant introductory clause, and of this week is also a largely redundant qualifier. Grammatically, all we've really got here is "You have [an obligation]". That fact that you can (optionally) include the word "that" in some rephrasings doesn't seem particularly relevant to the question, nor does it seem essential for reasons of either clarity or grammar. But having been forced to think about it a bit more, I now think the question is effectively General Reference (apart from the to finish/be finished difference not even asked about! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 28 '12 at 14:04

closed as general reference by FumbleFingers, MετάEd, coleopterist, tchrist, Noah Oct 2 '12 at 5:17

This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

If you insert that between advised and you, I think you will see that the sentence is made up of one main clause and one subordinate clause.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

Please be advised

(that) you have until Friday

of this week

to be finished.

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.