How to say i forgot in spanish

i forgot

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W...wait.

Olvidar works like forget in English. The one doing the forgetting is the subject and the forgotten thing is the object.

Yo olvidé mi cita. Yo olvidé mis llaves

So the verb must match in form the one doing the forgetting.

However, you are also seeing examples of passive construction with "se".

Se me olvidó la cita. Se me olvidaron las llaves

You can use "se" to construct passive sentences. These are roughly equivalent (but better sounding) to:

La cita fue olvidada por mi. Las llaves fueron olvidadas por mi.

Note that the conjugation matches in person/number the one in "se me..."; the number is that of the thing being forgotten.

A further example of "se" passive construction:

He gastado todas las balas -> Se me han gastado todas las balas

Which one should you use? Well, I think it's a matter of emphasis. Changing to a passive form emphasizes more the object. Full on passive forms are often clumsier, wordier and less natural (compare "la cita fue olvidada por mi" to "se me olvidó la cita"), and thus the "se" form often sounds better.

So for instance, let's say you want to say "you forgot to bring the wine":

If I wanted to blame you, I could say something like "Tú olvidaste traer el vino"
But if you brought lots of stuff, I might say "Se te olvidó el vino" instead.

You can also use repetition for emphasis, though: "Se te olvidó el vino a ti".

forget [fəˈɡet] forgot (past)forgotten (participle:past)

transitive verb

olvidar; olvidarse de

to forget to do sth olvidarse de hacer algo; I forgot to close the window me olvidé de or se me olvidó cerrar la ventana

don't forget to pay the gas bill

I forgot to tell you why se me olvidó decirte por qué; we shouldn't forget that ... no debemos olvidar que ...; never to be forgotten inolvidable; forget it! (don't worry) ¡no te preocupes!; ¡no importa!; (you're welcome) de nada; no hay de qué; (no way) ¡ni hablar!; ¡ni se te ocurra!

can I borrow your car, mum? - forget it!

and don't you forget it! ¡y que no se te olvide esto!; to forget o.s. (lose self-control) pasarse; propasarse

intransitive verb

(gen) olvidar; (have a bad memory) tener mala memoria

I forget no recuerdo; me he olvidado; but I forgot pero se me olvidó; I'm sorry, I'd completely forgotten! ¡lo siento, se me había olvidado por completo!; I forgot all about it se me olvidó por completo

I've forgotten all about it

if there's no money, you can forget (all) about the new car si no hay dinero, puedes olvidarte del nuevo coche; let's forget about it! (in annoyance) ¡olvidémoslo!; ¡basta!; (in forgiveness) más vale olvidarlo

You can use olvidar in 3 ways when translating to forget: olvidar, olvidarse de or the impersonal olvidársele algo a alguien.

When forgetting is accidental, the impersonal construction with se me, se le etc is the commonest option - it emphasizes the involuntary aspect. Here, the object of forget becomes the subject of olvidar:

I forgot Se me olvidó

I've forgotten what you said this morning Se me ha olvidado lo que dijiste esta mañana

He forgot his briefcase Se le olvidó el maletín

Olvidarse de and olvidar would be more formal alternatives.

In other contexts, use either olvidarse de or olvidar:

Have you forgotten what you promised me? ¿Te has olvidado de or Has olvidado lo que me prometiste?

In the end he managed to forget her Al final consiguió olvidarse de ella or consiguió olvidarla

Don't forget me No te olvides de mí, No me olvides