[Answered] Don't understand why this is a mistake (I've put/putting)

[BloodSweatTears]

I do excercises to improve my english and I have the following case where I don't comprehend why my answer wasn't good:S

Someone has taken my mobile. I clearly remember ______ it on the table.

I answered : "I've put" but it turns out the right answer is "putting".

Could someone be kind enough to explain to me why "I've put" is a mistake here?

 

[jutfrank]

A grammatical explanation is that the noun phrase putting it on the table is the object of the verb remember.

Verbs can follow different patterns, or structures. Here are two ways for you to understand the structure of the verb remember:

• remember something/somebody
• remember doing something

You can see that I remember putting it on the table follows the second pattern, which is the most natural in this particular situation. However, there are other ways to use remember. For example, you can say:

• remember (that) something happened
  

Your sentence could possibly be: I remember (that) I put it on the table.

Like this, the verb remember does not use an object. Notice also that the verb put is past simple (I put), not present perfect (I've put) but that's a different point.

 

[tedmc]

I think the question calls for a word (an object) rather than a phrase. With a phrase, the possibilities are limitless.

 

[TheParser]

NOT A TEACHER

I was just wondering whether these dialog(ue)s might be helpful.

ON MONDAY:

Mona: Excuse me, but you have some food stuck in your teeth.

Joe: That's strange. I clearly remember (at this moment) brushing my teeth before I left home today.

Mona: Well, you think that you brushed your teeth before you left home. The mind is a funny thing.

*****

TUESDAY

Mona: Wow! Your teeth look so clean today.

Joe: Yeah! I remembered (before leaving home) to brush my teeth today because of what you told me yesterday.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I do excercises to improve my english and I have the following case where I don't comprehend why my answer wasn't good:S

Someone has taken my mobile. I clearly remember ______ it on the table.

I answered : "I've put" but it turns out the right answer is "putting".

Could someone be kind enough to explain to me why "I've put" is a mistake here?

"Putting" is right. I can see how this is a hard question. Jutfrank is right. Look at it this way:

The simplest sentence is a subject and a verb - for example: "I remember."

The second-simplest is is a subject, a verb, and an object: "I remember something."

Subjects and objects are always nouns.

But in your sentence, the thing you remember is a verb: put.

So you need to turn put into a noun to make a subject/verb/object sentence.

We do that with -ing (An -ing verb acting as a noun is called a gerund.)

The gerund of put is putting: I remember putting.

That's the core of the sentence, the subject/verb/object — I/remember/putting.

I know this can be confusing. Does it seem simpler now?