forget his name

[navi tasan]

Which of the following are correct with the given meanings:

1-I forget his name.
Meaning: I cannot recall his name. I do not remember his name.

2-He forgets that man's name.
Meaning: He cannot recall her name.

3-I forgot his name when he came in through the door.
Meaning: When he came in through the door, I could not recall his name. His name had escaped my memory.

4-He forgot at that moment that he was the leader of a large enterprise.
Meaning: He had forgotten at the moment that he was the leader of a large enterprise.

5-She forgot just then that she had told a lie which contradicted what she was saying.
Meaning: She had forgotten just then that she had told a lie which contradicted what she was saying.

'Forget' could be a dynamic verb. '1' could mean 'I keep forgetting his name.' That is not the usage I have in mind. I want to see if these sentences would work if the stative meaning of 'forget' (be unable to recall) was intended.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Which of the following are correct with the given meanings:

1-I forget his name.
Meaning: I cannot recall his name. I do not remember his name.

2-He forgets that man's name.
Meaning: He cannot recall his name.

3-I forgot his name when he came in through the door.
Meaning: When he came in through the door, I could not recall his name. His name had escaped my memory.

4-He forgot at that moment that he was the leader of a large enterprise.
Meaning: He had forgotten at the moment that he was the leader of a large enterprise.

5-She forgot just then that she had told a lie which contradicted what she was saying.
Meaning: She had forgotten just then that she had told a lie which contradicted what she was saying.

'Forget' could be a dynamic verb. '1' could mean 'I keep forgetting his name.' [No, it doesn't mean that. It just says that you can't remember now. Keep forgetting means repeatedly forget. "I keep forgetting" is the same as "I repeatedly forget."] That is not the usage I have in mind. I want to see if these sentences would work if the stative meaning of 'forget' (be unable to recall) was intended.

Gratefully,
Navi.

You're welcome.

 

[Odessa Dawn]

Hi.:-D

3-I forgot his name when he came in through the door.
Meaning: When he came in through the door, I could not recall his name. His name had escaped my memory.

Isn't the underlined part a complete, independent sentence? Why do we have had there, please?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's the past perfect. The forgetting took place before the opening of the door.

 

[Tdol]

2-He forgets that man's name.
Meaning: He cannot recall her name.

I would be more likely to use the present perfect when talking about someone else. I would use #1 when I couldn't remember the name at the time of speaking.

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree. I would only use "He forgets that man's name" if it was a regular occurrence - "He forgets that man's name every time he meets him!" My grandfather always used "I forget [now]" instead of "I've forgotten".

 

[Rover_KE]

The expression 'I forget his name', meaning 'I can't remember his name (on this one particular occasion)' does not sound natural with any other pronoun than 'I'.