Forgot\Left

I forgot to remember to forget. :lol:

I merely "Vote" for "EITHER" at this junction. Why? because after i analyse the sense of using "forgot and left" i came up to my conclusion that, using forgot in this regard as "I forgot my homework at home" means, the action happened "Accidentally". . . . . .On the otherhand, using "LEFT" as "I left my homework at home" implies, the action occured with "Intention"

Based on my analysis, the words "forgot" and "Left" as we're trying to explain and used in the given sentences are both acceptable but it varries from the meaning or the thoughts that one might want to convey.

when someone says, "I forgot my homework at home" means, "ACCIDENTALLY"

WHILE, saying "I left my homework at home" sounds like, there's an "INTENTION" why it happend.

english001 said:

Based on my analysis, the words "forgot" and "Left" as we're trying to explain and used in the given sentences are both acceptable but it varries from the meaning or the thoughts that one might want to convey.

when someone says, "I forgot my homework at home" means, "ACCIDENTALLY"

WHILE, saying "I left my homework at home" sounds like, there's an "INTENTION" why it happend.

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Agree with U

I think the beginners will be at a loss in such situations when they see that even native speakers are not sure how to use these two words.
I think people can both leave and forget something somewhere. I myself prefer to say: I have left my homework at home.( It means that I forgot to take it with me.);-)

I'd rather use in this way:
I left my homework
I forgot to do my homework

Tdol said:

;-)

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Hi

I chose "left" because "forget" seems rather a cognitive verb which does not imply places.
I forget/forgot to do smth.
I forgot to do my homework and left my notebook at home, as well.

This is one of the riddles difficult to solve. I agree with those who say another verb after forget is expected or missing. Maybe everything lies in the nature of the two verbs. If I may take it a different direction I would say forget is mostly used as a stative verb (cognitive) rather than dynamically. But I know you can use it dynamically ie when more intention or effort is involved: She is forgetting her boyfriend. So there can be no intention in forget used as a stative verb. Maybe that's why "I forget it at home" is frowned on? Forget cannot simply be substituted by do. Leave by contrast is a pure dynamic verb and is closely related to place as already mentioned ie spatial. But I am speculating and still a more statisfactory explanation than given so far is needed. Forget the world and leave it behind you.

It is my interpretation that "I left my homework at home" is neutral and does not necessarily imply intention. Perhaps I meant to do so and perhaps I did not.

~R

RonBee said:

It is my interpretation that "I left my homework at home" is neutral and does not necessarily imply intention. Perhaps I meant to do so and perhaps I did not.

~R

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I do agree there is no intention in I left my homework at home but I think what
teia_petrescu said is quite interesting. Forget is indeed a cognitive verb and does't imply place. It is another way of saying I don't remember. The problem is in maybe most other languages it is forget and not leave which is used for places. The English forget seems to be different and more restricted in meaning and function. You can say I forgot to bring it but I left it at home.

You could say:
You could also say:
;-)

I forgot my homework at home is right:lol:

i would certainly vote for left...
forgot just ain't rite...

'i forgot my homework at home' sounded as if he (let say he's away from home) suddenly remembered he forgot to do his homework at home..

meanwhile

'i left my homework at home' means he intentionally or either way left his homework at home, in other words just forgot to bring it to school or anywhere...

dats wat i think...

emergine said:

I forgot my homework at home is right:lol:

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Well, that's settled then.

I agree that it should be 'left'.

I agree that 'left' does not imply intention.

I would say that 'forgot' is perfectly acceptable colloquial AE.

I've had this discussion with many many English teaching friends over here from the US, UK, Canada, Oz and NZ and generally they agree.

So there you go... it's many many vs emergine. I love science!

BTW, as a newb forgive me but I couldn't find an explanation of what these polls are for: acceptable standard usage (including vernacular and colloquialisms) or acceptable for teaching...?! I teach that 'forgot' in this context is wrong, but acceptable conversational colloquial AE.

BTWII

Casiopea said:

I forgot my homework at home. SVO+adjunct modifier
...

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Since language is not a science, the fact that you can qualify a sentence with a grammatical 'formula' like this does not necessarily give it any more weight.

I left my homework. (Not OK)

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Similarly, contextually, they may be occasions when this is acceptable.

"I left my homework" is incomplete. The where part is left out.

~R

RonBee said:

"I left my homework" is incomplete. The where part is left out.

~R

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E.g.
A: I left my pen at home.
B: Argghhh, whatever... I left my homework.

Of course, the 'where' part is left out, but this:

Mercian said:

Similarly, contextually, they may be occasions when this is acceptable.

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...still stands.

:-D

:?:

You said that 'I left my homework,' was incorrect, which I would generally agree with (with the implication that it was always so, which I wouldn't agree with). I was giving a natural-ish example in conversation where it might be perfectly acceptable English.

Thus, Cas's way of putting grammar into a formulaic 'equation' does not necessarily apply to naturalness. English grammar is not logical.

Mercian said:

BTW, as a newb forgive me but I couldn't find an explanation of what these polls are for: acceptable standard usage (including vernacular and colloquialisms) or acceptable for teaching...?! I teach that 'forgot' in this context is wrong, but acceptable conversational colloquial AE.

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It's a poll, so it's designed to see what people think, with the possibility to discuss afterwards, as is happening here. Not all of them have obviously right or wrong answers. :up:

Mercian said:

Since language is not a science, the fact that you can qualify a sentence with a grammatical 'formula' like this does not necessarily give it any more weight.

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:-D Agreed. For example, taking apart a cell phone doesn't support anything either, but it does tell us what its made of and how those parts function as a whole. ;-)

The second example is ambiguous:

[1] I forgot X at home. <unintentionally>
[2] I left X at home. <unintentionally or intentionally>

The verb forgot can express intentionality; e.g., I purposely forgot X at home, but modification or context is required. [1] is not ambiguous, whereas [2] is. It houses by default more than one meaning.

Knowing how something works is important. ;-)