Groups - Olvidar/olvidarse

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Anbarfa

The difference between “es que olvidé pagar la cuenta” and “es que yo olvidé pagar la cuenta” is easy.  Then mean pretty much the same thing.  The “yo” in the second sentence is redundant and is probable used to emphasis that it was “I” who forgot to pay the bill.

The differences between olvlidar and olvidarse is more complicated.  There are a lot of verbs with two forms, one ending with “se” where the one ending in “se” is not really reflective.  My favorite grammar book  A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish” has a section dedicated to these verbs.  The text below, in blue, came from this book, section 26.7.26:

“Olvidar/olvidarse ( de) / olvidársele algo a uno

The verb means ‘to forget’, and there are four possibilities: Olvidar algo, olvidarse algo, olvidarse  de algo,   olvidársele algo a alguien’

(a)   When deliberate forgetting is implied, the first form is rather formal and is usually replaced in coloquial styles by olvidarse de: ‘no puedo olvidarla/no puedo olvidarme de ella’  ‘I can’t forget her’.

(b)  For absent-minded forgetting olvidar and olvidárse le can be used, the former again being rather formal: he olvidado mi agenda/ se le olvidada todo menos ella ‘he forgot his other commitments, he forgot everything except her’. In the latter construction the thing forgotten is the subject of the verb: se me olvidaron las fores ‘I forgot the flowers’ (latterly ‘the flowers forgot themselves “on” me’)

(c)   Olvidarse algo (without the de) is colloquial and is censured by some grammarians, including Manuel Seco.  Foreigners should probably say me olvidado de ella or la he olvidado and not me la he olvidado.  It can, however, be used colloquially for the accidental forgetting of objects: me he olvidado el libro/ se me olvidó el libro ‘I’ve forgotten the book’ (but, since this is absent-minded forgetting, not me he olvidado del libro). Olvidarse algo is also common in Latin America.