I forgot my keys

[Saneta]

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #222 "Articles (3)", question 3

I forgot ......... my keys in the house.

(a) a
(b) an
(c) the
(d) (none)

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #222 "Articles (3)", answer 3

I forgot my keys in the house.

Correct answer: (d) (none)

Your answer was: correct
_________________________

I would say: I left my keys in the house, but: I forgot my keys to the house,
Why it is: I forgot my keys in the house????
thank you very much.

[Beeesneees]

It looks wrong to me too, Saneta. I agree with you.

Before I try to find it to edit it, I wonder if it is acceptable in American English? Anyone?
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Esl_Expert]

Hi Bev,

It certainly isn't the best way to phrase that sentence. It sounds wrong to me too. Personally, I'd say either 'I forgot my/the house keys' (OR, as Saneta suggested, 'I forgot the keys to the house') OR 'I left my/the keys in the house'.

In addition, a search of COCA for the phrase 'forgot my keys in' results in no usage examples whatsoever.

If one of my students produced the test sentence, I would tell them that, even though the sentence is understandable, it should be corrected.

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“No one can drive us crazy unless we give them the keys.” ~ Doug Horton

[Beeesneees]

Thanks for the confirmation. I've changed it to 'left', which is what I'd say too.
We'll have to wait to see if the database refresh works this time.
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Mister Micawber]

It's not worth changing back, but 'I forgot my keys in the house' is a common casual AmE utterance, as illogical as it sounds. My mother used it all the time (she was very forgetful).
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Esl_Expert]

Hi MM,

Maybe it's mainly something used on the west coast then... (?) Or, if it was your mother who used it, perhaps it has become less common with time. I wouldn't call it common in my neck of the woods (east coast). One thing I would agree with, though, is that IF used, it is best used in casual conversation.

___________________________________________________________
"An academic dialect is perfected when its terms are hard to understand and refer only to one another." ~ Mason Cooley

[Mister Micawber]

[Esl_Expert]

Hi MM,

Thanks for the links. There does appear to be quite a bit of variation among native-speakers on this.

I have now managed to find 5 usage examples for "forgot * at home" in COCA. Still, that number is a bit "underwhelming"...

_______________________________________________________________________
"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles." ~ Christopher Reeve

[Beeesneees]

So my original suspicions were correct, then. I believe 'left' is universally used, so unless I'm wrong about that is it okay to leave it?
If it was important to that particulart test to include the word 'forgot' then perhaps we can just remove 'in the house' to make the statement universal.
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Mister Micawber]

Yes, yes, leave what you've done. 'Left' is unequivocally right.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Saneta]

Dear Esl Expert, please tell mean what does it mean:
1. in my neck of the woods
2. COCA - a drug?
thank you!:)

[Beeesneees]

1.in my neck of the woods = in my locality. (Around this area of the country)
2. COCA = Corpus of Contemporary American English:
The interface (the Corpus's database) allows you to search for exact words or phrases, wildcards, lemmas, part of speech, or any combinations of these. You can search for surrounding words (collocates) within a ten-word window (e.g. all nouns somewhere near faint, all adjectives near woman, or all verbs near feelings), which often gives you good insight into the meaning and use of a word.
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Saneta]

Thanks a lot Beeesneees!!! COCA is new for me and appears very good..

[Beeesneees]

For examples of British English, there's also the BNC - the British National Corpus.
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
_________________
"Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened."
Terry Pratchett

[Saneta]

Ok! Thank You :-)