[Grammar] thought you forgot/ had forgotten

[andi harper]

Hi. Could you tell me which tense should be used Past Simple or Past Perfect in the examples below:
I thought you forgot/had forgotten about me.
I thought you forgot/ had forgotten about today.( as in an appointment)
Thanks a lot.

 

[Roman55]

It's a question of context. Both tenses are possible, but they don't have the same meaning.

 

[andi harper]

It's a question of context. Both tenses are possible, but they don't have the same meaning.

Could you explain?

 

[Roman55]

'I thought you had forgotten about me/about today' will almost always carry with it the idea that, in fact, you hadn't forgotten after all.

'I though you forgot' could mean this too, but that doesn't make them interchangeable.

One of an infinite number of possibilities would be if someone tells you that he always forgets appointments and then turns up on time for one. You could say to him, 'I thought you forgot appointments'. You can't replace this with 'had forgotten'.

 

[andi harper]

'I thought you had forgotten about me/about today' will almost always carry with it the idea that, in fact, you hadn't forgotten after all.

'I though you forgot' could mean this too, but that doesn't make them interchangeable.

One of an infinite number of possibilities would be if someone tells you that he always forgets appointments and then turns up on time for one. You could say to him, 'I thought you forgot appointments'. You can't replace this with 'had forgotten'.

Sorry, still not clear. Especially the first part about the idea of not forgetting after all. A little more help, please. :-?

 

[GoesStation]

Ann: "Hi Elizabeth! Where have you been? I've been waiting for half an hour. I thought you'd forgotten about me!"

Elizabeth: "I'm really sorry. First I missed the bus, then I discovered I'd left my phone at home so I couldn't call to let you know."

 

[andi harper]

Ann: "Hi Elizabeth! Where have you been? I've been waiting for half an hour. I thought you'd forgotten about me!"

Elizabeth: "I'm really sorry. First I missed the bus, then I discovered I'd left my phone at home so I couldn't call to let you know."

How about examples like these:
I thought I lost you.
I thought we told you not to leave town.
I thought we moved past this.
I thought you left.
That was a lot easier than I thought.
Should any of them be used in Past Perfect?

 

[GoesStation]

I thought I had lost you.
I thought we told you not to leave town.
I thought we had moved past this.
I thought you left or I thought you had left.
That was a lot easier than I thought.

Examples:
I thought you left before the second act. (We are discussing a play and you mention something that happened in act II.)

I thought you had left before I arrived. (It turns out we were both in a museum at the same time. I didn't see you there but you just told me you had been there.)

 

[andi harper]

Hi.Shouldn't your first example be in Past Perfect too?Since turns out that the person was actually there during the second act.

 

[GoesStation]

Hi.Shouldn't your first example be in Past Perfect too?Since turns out that the person was actually there during the second act.

I re-read my post a little while ago and noticed that the sentence could also work with the past perfect. Let me try to improve it by adding context.

I: "Hi, Andi! How are you?"
Andi: "I'm fine, thanks. I haven't seen you since Waiting for Godot. Lucky sure made a dramatic speech, didn't he?"
I: "I thought you left before the second act. Where did you hear Lucky's speech?"


Note: Every sentence should end with an appropriate punctuation mark. If another sentence follows it, there should be a space after that punctuation mark.

 

[andi harper]

I re-read my post a little while ago and noticed that the sentence could also work with the past perfect. Let me try to improve it by adding context.

I: "Hi, Andi! How are you?"
Andi: "I'm fine, thanks. I haven't seen you since Waiting for Godot. Lucky sure made a dramatic speech, didn't he?"
I: "I thought you left before the second act. Where did you hear Lucky's speech?"


Note: Every sentence should end with an appropriate punctuation mark. If another sentence follows it, there should be a space after that punctuation mark.

How about, for instance, when an employee quits his job and leaves but then later his boss sees him hanging around in the office and says: I thought you left.
Following your explanation it should be in past perfect because he hadn't left after all. :?:

 

[GoesStation]

How about, for instance, when an employee quits his job and leaves but then later his boss sees him hanging around in the office and says: I thought you left.
Following your explanation it should be in past perfect because he hadn't left after all. :?:

Correct.

 

[andi harper]

Correct.

Then why was it used with past simple?

 

[Rover_KE]

His boss got it wrong. (It was you who gave the boss these words to say.)

He could have said 'I thought you left last month'.

 

[GoesStation]

Then why was it used with past simple?

I don't understand the question. What does "it" refer to?

 

[andi harper]

I don't understand the question. What does "it" refer to?

I meant the verb leave. Why was it used in past simple?

 

[andi harper]

His boss got it wrong. (It was you who gave the boss these words to say.)

He could have said 'I thought you left last month'.

I didn't make that situation up, I actually saw it on a TV show and that's how the boss used it, in simple past.

 

[GoesStation]

The situation we're discussing: an employee quits his job and leaves but then later his boss sees him hanging around in the office and says: I thought you left. The question is, why did the boss use the past simple?

It's possible the boss actually used the past perfect. "I thought you'd left" sounds very much like "I though you left." I'd pronounce the former I thought'zh'd left. If he chose the past simple, he was thinking something like "I thought you left an hour ago," and interrupted his thought before completely expressing it.

 

[andi harper]

The situation we're discussing: an employee quits his job and leaves but then later his boss sees him hanging around in the office and says: I thought you left. The question is, why did the boss use the past simple?

It's possible the boss actually used the past perfect. "I thought you'd left" sounds very much like "I though you left." I'd pronounce the former I thought'zh'd left. If he chose the past simple, he was thinking something like "I thought you left an hour ago," and interrupted his thought before completely expressing it.

I'm pretty sure I heard past simple, I even checked, but I suppose it could be the case of an interrupted thought. But what about: We thought you forgot about today. (said to a cleaner guy who eventually showed up to clean up the backyard of the house)
Or: I thought we moved past this. (but it turned out the person hadn't)

P.S By the way, did I use the right tense with hadn't or should I have said-but it turned out the person didn't?
Much appreciate it.

 

[GoesStation]

But what about: We thought you forgot about today. (said to a cleaner guy who eventually showed up to clean up the backyard of the house)
Or: I thought we moved past this. (but it turned out the person hadn't)

P.S By the way, did I use the right tense with hadn't or should I have said-but it turned out the person didn't?
Much appreciate it.

Yes, you chose the right tense (and the right verb).

We thought you forgot about today could be another case of a swallowed d if the character was speaking BrE, as you'd forgot sounds only slightly different from you forgot. This would be less likely in AmE where the past participle is usually "forgotten." I'd offer the same possibility for we'd moved; the d can be an extremely brief tap of the tongue against the ridge of the hard palate.

I'd use the past perfect in both sentences but the past simple would not sound terribly jarring. Still I think the likeliest explanation is that the speaker barely enunciated the ds.