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I can think of three ways to say "I remembered to put a pen in my bag"

忘れないでカバンにペンを入れました。

カバンにペンを入れることを忘れなかった。

カバンにペンを入れて忘れなかった。

I think all are technically correct but I'm not sure which is more natural.

Eric Y
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    Are you really trying to say "remembered to"? Because you're saying "didn't forget to". – istrasci Jan 25 '17 at 17:20
  • Most things I've read for this kind of case would say "did not forget to" or "do not forget to" but if I am completely wrong here please correct me. – Eric Y Jan 25 '17 at 17:21
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    Japanese dictionaries say that both "remember to" and "don't forget to" mean 忘れずに～する. When they become past tense, are their meanings different? Doesn't "remembered to" mean 忘れずに～した? Could someone teach me? – Yuuichi Tam Jan 26 '17 at 04:44
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    ^「忘れずに～した」でいいと思います・・ – Chocolate Jan 26 '17 at 06:55

2 Answers2

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Your first and second sentence are the same meaning. 忘れないで～する is a bit unnatural but 忘れずに～する is natural. And I feel the second one is more literary than the first.

The meaning of your third sentence are different from the others. This means "I put a pen in my bag and I didn't forget it."

Yuuichi Tam
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忘れないでカバンにペンを入れました。

ないで tends to sound like the negative imperative "Don't do X," so this one sounds a bit awkward, as if the 忘れないで is part of a quote from which we're missing the first half. While you can generally use ないで as a negative gerund, it typically doesn't imply causality with what comes afterwards. If you'd like to lead with some form of 忘れる here, you can use 忘れなくて as such:

[覚えようとしたことを」忘れなくてカバンにペンを入れました。

If you're comfortable with it, you can also use ～ず here, simply replacing 忘れなくて with 忘れず[に]. Personally, I think ず is the best choice for this kind of sentence, but なくて functions just fine if you aren't there yet.

カバンにペンを入れることを忘れなかった。

I think this is the most easily understood of the three sentences you've given us, but I'd suggest using の instead of こと when nominalizing 入れる:

カバンにペンを入れるのを忘れなった。

To me "カバンにペンを入れることのを忘れなかった" sounds a little like you're talking about an experience rather than something abstract, like "I remember [didn't forget] going to put a pen in my bag," and I would somewhat expect to here some "but/however"-type clause follow. こと tends to sound like one is speaking of concrete events rather than abstract ideas (e.g. 食べたことありますか？), whereas の can be much more abstract.

カバンにペンを入れて忘れなかった。

This sounds like you put the pen in your bag and then didn't forgot about something while/because you were doing so. The "something" could be the placing of the pen or anything else depending on the context.

So both 1 and 2 can work, but I think sentence 2 is the most natural sounding.

Community
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vel
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    「忘れなくてカバンにペンを入れました。」はおかしいです。 – Chocolate Jan 26 '17 at 00:43
  • Does 忘れなくて sound weird to you with a prior established context of something along the lines of [覚えようとしたことを]? I agree that it's not a particularly appealing option most of the time, but was admittedly more interested in juxtaposing なくて's nuance against that of ないで. – vel Jan 26 '17 at 07:54
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    With or without 「覚えようとしたことを」, 「忘れ**なくて** カバンにペンを入れました」 makes little sense. 「忘れ**ずに**カバンにペンを入れました。」「忘れ**ないで**カバンにペンを入れました。」 or 「カバンにペンを入れるのを忘れませんでした。」 would make sense. What did you try to say by 覚えようとしたことを忘れなくて, by the way? I'd interpret it as "Not forgetting what I tried to memorize/learn." – Chocolate Jan 26 '17 at 08:17