"to forget" in seven languages

Meaningto forget

Spanish

olvidar

/olˈbidaɾ/

inherited

Also olvidarse de: se me olvidó 'it slipped my mind'.

French

oublier

/ublije/

inherited

Italian

dimenticare

/dimentiˈkare/

other source · Late Latin *DĒMENTICĀRE, from DĒ MENTE 'out of the mind'

Also scordare, from DIS- + COR 'heart'.

Portuguese

esquecer

/iskeˈseh/

other source · Latin *EXCADĒSCERE 'to fall out (of the mind)', from CADERE 'to fall'

Romanian

uita

/ujˈta/

inherited

Catalan

oblidar

/ubliˈda/

inherited

English

forget

/fɚˈgɛt/

native English · Old English forgietan

English → Italianto forgetdimenticareNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: oblivion, oblivious.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

*OBLĪTĀRE‘to forget (from OBLĪTUS, participle of OBLĪVĪSCĪ)’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Spoken Latin built a regular verb on OBLĪTUS 'forgotten': Spanish swapped its b and l and softened the t (olvidar), French wore it down to oublier. Italian lets things fall 'out of the mind' (dimenticare).

English relatives: oblivion, oblivious

Sound laws at work

Voiceless stops between vowels soften

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In a sentence

esNo olvides las llaves.
frN'oublie pas tes clés.
itNon dimenticare le chiavi.
ptNão esqueça as chaves.
roNu-ți uita cheile!
caNo t'oblidis les claus.
enDon't forget your keys.

More in Core verbs

All Core verbs words