“Please distribute amongst your team.”

Prepositions, Pronouns

I saw this in an email message.

Problems:
1. A direct object is missing.
2. The wrong preposition was used.

Explanation:
The email message included an attached announcement about a reorganization.

The writer sent the email message to the people near the top of the new organization.

She wanted to make sure that everyone in the new organization — all Americans — got the news.

Even if we convert the chiefly British preposition “amongst” to the more common preposition “among”, we still do not have the solution.

“Please distribute among your team.” still has two problems: (1) a direct object is missing; (2) the preposition “among” does not go with the singular noun “team”.

The solution to the first problem is to put the pronoun “this” immediately after the verb “distribute”.

The solution to the second problem is to replace the preposition “among”, which requires three or more parties, with the preposition “to”, which requires a minimum of one party.

Solution:
“Please distribute this to your team.”