Learn English – How should “please find enclosed” be used

emailidioms

In business writing and especially email, the phrase is often used as:

Please find enclosed our price list.

Please find attached the updated contract.

Please find herewith my expense report for ice cream.

While I often use it myself, I find that it sounds a bit off. How did this sentence construction come to be? The grammar doesn't seem to add up: what are the parts of this sentence?

The words enclosed, attached, or herewith looks like it should be a separate clause, perhaps:

Please find (enclosed) the photo of my cat.

Please find, enclosed, the photo of my cat.

Is it more correct with the use of a comma?

Another variant I've seen is with the reverse word order:

Attached please find your daughter's report card.

Does this word order make it any better?

Best Answer

“To find x y” is a common construction in English, though it usually takes an object pronoun:

I find him quite dashing.

I find myself lost for words.

This presumably comes from a shortening of “to find that x is y”.

I think that analysis applies equally well to “find x enclosed/attached/herewith”. I think we can attribute the fronting of the adjective—whether before the object or further before the verb—to the usual shifts in word order that accompany formal language.

Following please find your examples, reordered:

Please find our price list enclosed.

Please find the updated contract attached.

Please find my expense report for ice cream herewith.

Please find your daughter's report card attached.

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