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I am from Philadelphia and I grew up saying, I forget when trying to recall something unsuccessfully. When I came in contact with people from other states, mostly in the mid-Atlantic region, I heard people say under the same circumstances, I forgot in the past tense. The latter implies that the forgetting happened at a certain point in time in the past, while the former seems to imply that as long as you don't remember, you are continuously forgetting.

Which is the more widely used, and does it break down along regional lines?

Ellie Kesselman
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Daniel
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  • Did you mean "I am from Philadelphia and I grew up saying "I forgot..."? – Erik Kowal May 30 '14 at 03:28
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    Personally, I find that *I forget* is mostly idiomatic usage like *long time no see*. – Blessed Geek May 30 '14 at 03:45
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    Technicalities apart, "you are not continuously forgetting" -- forget but once and its forgotten. However, both I forget & I forgot make sense, though they mean subtly different things. As for regional differences, dialects override 'standard' grammar. – Kris May 30 '14 at 05:07
  • @Kris On the contrary, I would say that forgetting is very much a continuous experience. The information may still be there, you just can't find it. But this is more a question for cognitive science than English. – Wlerin May 30 '14 at 05:16
  • @Wlerin [cogsci.se] – Kris May 30 '14 at 05:17
  • @Kris - lol, and excellent! Thanks for pointing me there. – anongoodnurse May 30 '14 at 06:14

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