I forgot my homework at home.

[sitifan]

1. I left my phone at home.
2. I forgot (to bring) my phone.
3. I forgot my phone at home.
Source: https://www.businessweekly.com.tw/careers/blog/3012819
#1 and #2 are supposed to be correct. Is #3 also acceptable to native speakers?

 

[5jj]

Not to me.

 

[Rover_KE]

Nor to me, but I expect our North American friends will tell us when they wake up in a few hours that it’s perfectly acceptable to them.​

 

[Tarheel]

I would expect (and would say):

I forgot my phone. I left it at home.

I would probably leave off the last part.

If what you mean by "acceptable" is would I understand it (#3) the answer is yes.

I'm trying to remember what I would have said to my teacher if I had left my homework at home. Perhaps:

Teacher: Where's your homework?
Me: I forgot it. It's at home.

Or perhaps better:

Teacher: Where's your homework?
Me: My dog ate it

(Unfortunately, I didn't have that excuse, because I didn't have a dog. )

 

[sitifan]

https://english.stackexchange.com/q...ntence-im-afraid-i-forgot-my-homework-at-home
If someone told you that

I'm afraid I forgot my homework at home.

is wrong, the only possible reason is that that someone believes you should have said either:

I'm afraid I forgot my homework. I left it at home.

or

I'm afraid I left my homework at home.

The string "I forgot my homework at home" is ambiguous. When you were at home and supposed to be doing your homework, did you forget that you had homework to do? If so, then you should say:

I'm afraid that after I arrived home yesterday, I forgot that I had homework to do, so I didn't do it.

The problem is one of semantics, not grammar. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
However, most native speakers would understand your sentence to mean that you were claiming two things:

(1) I did my homework.

and

(2) I forgot to bring it with me. It's still at home.

 

[Tarheel]

I guess I forgot that the original sentence has "afraid" in it.

I don't want to be disagreeable, but I don't think there's much of a possibility of ambiguity.

Sentence #3 is kind of a combination of sentences #1 and #2, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear it.

 

[Skrej]

All three original sentences are commonly used where I live. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that last one.

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the Stack Exchange feedback. Note that they're not arguing the grammar, just the semantics.

As they admit, anyone would immediately understand it as a reason(excuse) for not submitting homework. When and where it was actually forgotten is irrelevant in the grand scheme of not submitting your homework.

 

[Flask]

3. I forgot my phone at home.

. . . Is #3 also acceptable to native speakers?

I have mixed feelings about (3). It sounds bad only when I analyze it with "at home" as specifying the location of the speaker's phone's passing out of his memory bank. In my opinion, however, it can be analyzed differently. If it is taken to mean "I forgot my phone at home [when I left]," then it's just an abbreviated way of saying, "I forgot my phone when I left home"; and I see nothing wrong with that sentence. "Forgot" basically means "didn't think about at the time" in this context.

 

[jutfrank]

It is a matter of syntax, not just semantics. The thing that we're saying is wrong (or 'bad' if you prefer) is when the verb 'forget' is being used in the sense of 'leave', as in the pattern 'leave something somewhere'.

I left my phone at home.

Here, 'at home' is the location of the phone—in this pattern a complement. This is what people mean when they incorrectly say things like 'I forgot my phone at home'.

 

[tedmc]

To forget something at a certain place sounds strange and unnatural, as though the thing slips out of one's memory at that place.

 

[Flask]

It is a matter of syntax, not just semantics. The thing that we're saying is wrong (or 'bad' if you prefer) is when the verb 'forget' is being used in the sense of 'leave', as in the pattern 'leave something somewhere'.

I left my phone at home.

Here, 'at home' is the location of the phone—in this pattern a complement. This is what people mean when they incorrectly say things like 'I forgot my phone at home'.

Isn't "forget" is being used in that sense only by implication? Consider the following sentences in context:

(1a) I forgot ice. [Context: We are on a picnic.]
(2a) I forgot beer. [Context: I just exited or got back from a store.]

It would make no sense, in context, to say that those sentences are talking about ice or beer as such slipping out of memory. In context, the meaning is "I forgot [to bring] ice," "I forgot [to buy] beer." Now, what about these extensions?

(1b) I forgot ice at home.
(2b) I forgot beer at the store.

Doesn't the meaning of the (a) versions remain in the (b) versions? The (b) versions simply specify where the forgotten but intended action, the forgetting to X, be it to bring ice or to buy beer, occurred.

 

[jutfrank]

Isn't "forget" is being used in that sense only by implication?

Yes, right. If you say I left my phone at home, it typically means that you forgot to bring it with you, though of course in a different context it could just as well mean you left it there intentionally.

Consider the following sentences in context:

(1a) I forgot ice. [Context: We are on a picnic.]
(2a) I forgot beer. [Context: I just exited or got back from a store.]

It would make no sense, in context, to say that those sentences are talking about ice or beer as such slipping out of memory. In context, the meaning is "I forgot [to bring] ice," "I forgot [to buy] beer."

Yes.

Now, what about these extensions?

(1b) I forgot ice at home.
(2b) I forgot beer at the store.

Doesn't the meaning of the (a) versions remain in the (b) versions? The (b) versions simply specify where the forgotten but intended action, the forgetting to X, be it to bring ice or to buy beer, occurred.

Yes, right, but I'm saying that these b versions are ungrammatical. I mean, from a teacher's point of view, they're ripe for correction since they count as typical learner errors (they're often interference errors from the L1). I accept of course that a minority of native speakers might use them but still.

 

[Tarheel]

I forgot to bring the ice. (Possible.)
I forgot the ice at home. (Would anybody really say that? (I don't think so.))

I forgot to get the beer. (Possible.)
I forgot beer at the store. (You're kidding, right?)

 

[Flask]

Yes, right, but I'm saying that these b versions are ungrammatical. I mean, from a teacher's point of view, they're ripe for correction since they count as typical learner errors (they're often interference errors from the L1). I accept of course that a minority of native speakers might use them but still.

I myself don't find the b versions ungrammatical. I'm not saying that I would use them; I was simply trying to invent cases grammatically parallel to I forgot my cell phone at home -- and perhaps I should have thought of better examples.

I don't think forgot is being used accidentally or ignorantly instead of left in I forgot my cell phone at home, whose meaning goes beyond that of I left my cell phone at home to include the idea of my having intended to bring it.

My analysis of such sentences, which analysis I am not taking from any grammar book but am inventing myself, is that they contain a covert infinitival complement, at least at the level of meaning.

When the infinitival complement is included, it becomes clear why people omit it.

(3) I forgot to take my cell phone with me at home.

In (3), there is undesirable structural ambiguity. It is unclear whether "at home" modifies "take" or "forgot." I think that it either modifies "forgot," as this rather awkward cleft sentence would suggest:

It was at home that I forgot to take my cell phone with me.

or functions as a kind of predicate appositive, if you will, relating to "I," such that "at home" specifies where I was when I forgot to take my cell phone with me:

I forgot to take my cell phone with me when I was at home.
At home, I forgot to take my cell phone with me.
I forgot my cell phone at home.

That's my best defense of the construction with "forget," which we all know does occur, even among native speakers. It's just a question of whether it occurs with grammatical legitimacy. So far, I seem to be alone here in thinking it does.

If what I have said still fails to convince, I shall concede defeat. I tried.

 

[jutfrank]

I find your analysis interesting, Flask, but I'm unconvinced.

I don't think forgot is being used accidentally or ignorantly instead of left in I forgot my cell phone at home, whose meaning goes beyond that of I left my cell phone at home to include the idea of my having intended to bring it.

I don't think it's being used ignorantly if it's coming from a native speaker. As we agree, the idea of leaving something somewhere unintentionally is implied. I consider the structure 'forget something somewhere' to actually be a solution to this ambiguity. My point though is that since I, and I think most other native speakers (at least non-Americans), would be likely to wince at such a sentence, I have to count it as ungrammatical. Perhaps this is a case of a new stucture being born in order to solve a problem, and in another fifty years it'll sound fine.

 

[emsr2d2]

When I lived in Madrid, one of my best friends was an American English speaker. I distinctly remember her saying "Damn! I forgot my cell [phone] at home!" I looked quizzically at her and asked if that was the normal way to say it for her. She confirmed that it was and asked how I would say it. I explained that BrE doesn't combine "forgot" with the location of the forgotten item. We both learned something and went on to teach our respective students the different ways of saying it depending on the variant of English. Until then, I would have marked it as grammatically incorrect and insisted it must be either "I/I've left my mobile [phone] at home" or "I forgot/I've forgotten my mobile [phone]".