Difference between 見忘れる and 忘れる


I was speaking with a friend of mine and said I learnt Japanese using some
dictionaries and websites. But I forgot to mention that I also use grammar
books, so I said:

[code]

    忘れてた！日本語の文法書たくさんよんでいますね。
    I forgot! I read many Japanese grammar books.
    
[/code]

She then corrected me saying it should be 見忘れました instead, hinting that with
忘れてた (or 忘れました） you can't drop what was forgotten (i.e. it needs to be
explicitly said e.g.

[code]

    〜を忘れてた
    I forgot .
    
[/code]

Does the 見 at the start of the verb make the transitive verb (requiring an
object) into an intransitive verb (not requiring an object)?

The dictionary definitions I have don't show much difference:

> 見忘れる【みわすれる】 v1,vt + (1) to forget/to fail to recognize/to fail to
> recognise/EntL1641770X
>
> 忘れる【わすれる】 v1,vt Pop + (1) to forget/to leave carelessly/to be forgetful
> of/to forget about/to forget (an article)

Possibly related: <https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/15118/10888>

EDIT: Full conversation below (please ignore spelling mistake of 見忘れました as
みわせれりました

[![Conversation screen grab part
a](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QRcja.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/QRcja.png)
[![Conversation screen grab part
b](https://i.stack.imgur.com/64st8.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/64st8.png)




I think the reason they corrected you to say 見忘れました was that you typed
みわせれりました which looked/sounded like みわすれました; as I said in the comment, 見忘れました(I
forgot to see) wouldn't make sense there.

And they said 「忘れました→何を忘れたかわからない。見忘れました→」(by which I think they meant to say:
"If you just said 忘れました, I wouldn't know what you forgot. So I recommend you
say 見忘れました"), and 「忘れてた→what? "I forgot~~" = ～を忘れてた」(by which I think they
meant: "If you just said 忘れてた, I'd want to ask 'What did you forget?' so I
recommend you say like XXを忘れてた(I forgot + [an object])")...

But, in real life, we often use the phrase 「あっ、忘れた！/ 忘れました！/ 忘れちゃった！etc.」(I
forgot!) or 「あっ、忘れてた！/ 忘れてました！」(I had forgotten! / Now I remembered!) without
explicitly mentioning _what_ you forgot or forgot to do, so...

After reading your whole conversation, I think you could have said:

>   * 忘れました！ / 忘れてました！ 日本語の文法書 **も** たくさん読んでいますよ。  
>  (Lit: I forgot! / I had forgotten! I read a lot of Japanese grammar books,
> too.)
>   * 言い忘れました！ / 言い忘れてました！ 日本語の文法書 **も** たくさん読んでいますよ。  
>  (Lit: I forgot to say! / I had forgotten to say! I read a lot of Japanese
> grammar books, too.)
>

etc. in your situation.




I think the reason they corrected you to say 見忘れました was that you typed
みわせれりました which looked/sounded like みわすれました; as I said in the comment, 見忘れました(I
forgot to see) wouldn't make sense there.

And they said 「忘れました→何を忘れたかわからない。見忘れました→」(by which I think they meant to say:
"If you just said 忘れました, I wouldn't know what you forgot. So I recommend you
say 見忘れました"), and 「忘れてた→what? "I forgot~~" = ～を忘れてた」(by which I think they
meant: "If you just said 忘れてた, I'd want to ask 'What did you forget?' so I
recommend you say like XXを忘れてた(I forgot + [an object])")...

But, in real life, we often use the phrase 「あっ、忘れた！/ 忘れました！/ 忘れちゃった！etc.」(I
forgot!) or 「あっ、忘れてた！/ 忘れてました！」(I had forgotten! / Now I remembered!) without
explicitly mentioning _what_ you forgot or forgot to do, so...

After reading your whole conversation, I think you could have said:

>   * 忘れました！ / 忘れてました！ 日本語の文法書 **も** たくさん読んでいますよ。  
>  (Lit: I forgot! / I had forgotten! I read a lot of Japanese grammar books,
> too.)
>   * 言い忘れました！ / 言い忘れてました！ 日本語の文法書 **も** たくさん読んでいますよ。  
>  (Lit: I forgot to say! / I had forgotten to say! I read a lot of Japanese
> grammar books, too.)
>

etc. in your situation.

