REMEMBER TO DO or REMEMBER DOING?

Hi everyone, I’m Dan and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.com/

Today we’re going to learn how to use the verb REMEMBER and how the meaning can change depending on the form of the next verb we use after it.

So what’s the difference between REMEMBER TO DO and REMEMBER DOING? Let’s try an example sentence to see how we use them:

You could say: REMEMBER TO DO your homework or REMEMBER DOING your homework. But what’s the difference? What do they mean?

Well, the first one, REMEMBER TO DO your homework, means you don’t forget. If you don’t REMEMBER TO DO your homework, your teacher will be very angry with you and maybe give you extra homework as punishment! You don’t want that, right? Nobody wants extra homework! So, always REMEMBER TO DO your homework! Another way to say this is DON’T FORGET TO DO your homework. So, REMEMBER TO DO means DON’T FORGET to do.

REMEMBER DOING your homework, means you have some memory of the action. It happened in the past and you have a memory of that action. You could tell someone where you were, what time it was, how long it took, who you were with, because you have a memory of this event. So, you could say: I REMEMBER DOING my homework! I can describe the action from my memory.

You can use FORGET in the same way. If you FORGET TO DO your homework, it means you don’t remember and your teacher will be angry with you. If you FORGET DOING your homework, it means you did it in the past but you have no memory of the event. Maybe you were very tired when you did it!

That’s easy right? OK, practice makes perfect, so go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!