I've been seeing both of these constructions all around, and I'd like to know if there is any rule that controls the usage of this expression.
For what I've read, it seems to me that "Bear something in mind" is used when that something is short, or a single word, like "Bearing this in mind we have that…"
On the other hand, "Bear in mind something" seems to be used when that something in longer, or even just longer than a single word, like "Bearing in mind both of those previous things…".
Any confirmation on this? What would you use if you are referring to an annotation? (e.g. "Bearing [1] in mind…" or "Bearing in mind theorems [1] and [2]…").
Best Answer
The natural phrase is "Bear X in mind", the other construction always a second choice.
The X is a direct object, and English prefers to put direct and indirect objects without prepositions before prepositional phrases: "Give John the book", but "Give the book to John".
On the other hand, we also do not like to put the parts of uncommon idioms too far apart.
This particular idiom tends to take phrases in 'that' or 'whether', which are hard to get out of cleanly. So we push those to the end, after the prepositional phrase that closes idioms of this form, to avoid confusion.
I would go with "Bear theorems [1] and [2] in mind" because it does not have this closing-a-phrase problem. But "Bear in mind that blah, blah blah."