Memory Words. Learn and Remember Easily

Good morning, Kathy. Don’t you “Good morning” me! Where’s that sales analysis report I need for the board meeting tomorrow?

Tomorrow? I’ll get it to you by the end of the day, I promise.  

You’d better or you can kiss your bonus goodbye, buddy.

Now that my charms are all overthrown. And what strength I have’s. my… What strength I have’s…  What strength I have. m  m..

Tom, what are you doing?

Oh, I’m memorizing Shakespeare. I used to perform it back in school.

And you’re doing it now, why?

Because it improves your memory to learn poetry by heart.

Okay. Did you remember to send me that report?

I don’t recall. Which report. Would you jog my memory?

It’s the report the head office needed yesterday. I already sent you a reminder. And I can’t believe I’m reminding you again!

This is reminiscent of not handing in my school homework.

Tom, do the report now.

But it’s almost the end of the workday.

You stay here until you’ve finished that report and sent it to me.

And that reminds me of getting an after school detention. 

Tom.

You’re a tough boss.

Well, I have a tough boss.

We’re going to start with the difference between remind and remember,  after we’ve reminded our viewers to subscribe If they haven’t done so already.

That’s a good reminder, Tom. Now, actually, I already made a video with Vicki and Jason that explains the difference in meaning very well. Let’s replay it here.

Remember: To have a picture in your mind of something that happened in the past. 

I can’t remember where I put my keys.

Well, when did you last have them?

Remind is what we do when we help someone remember.

Okay. I’m off.

Okay. Oh, don’t forget your keys.

Thank you for reminding me.

So remind is always followed by the person that needs to remember the thing. The two sentence structures we use are. Remind someone to do something, which means to help someone. Remember to do something required. 

I can’t believe I’m reminding you again.

And remind someone of something, which means to express a similarity between two things.

And that reminds me of getting an after school detention.  

In contrast, Remember doesn’t need an object after it. I remember is a complete sentence. We can remember something. I remember that vacation. Or we can remember someone.

I remember you. 

But we cannot remember someone to do something. We remind them to do something. 

There are two common sentence structures that follow remember. Remember to do something, which means to talk about things that need to be done.  And remember doing something, which means to talk about memories from the past.

So should I say I remembered to buy the milk, or I remembered buying the milk… if it was something that needed to be done and it happened in the past.

Both are possible. It depends on what information you wish to communicate. If you say, I remembered to buy the milk, I understand that the milk needed to be bought and you did it. But if you say, I remembered buying the milk, then I understand that you are talking about a past memory.  For example, I might say I remember buying milk in glass bottles to reminisce about my childhood.

Sorry. Reminisce? Reminiscing? 

Yes. It means to talk about past experiences that you remember with pleasure.

Ah, okay. So I can reminisce about good memories, but not bad ones.

Correct.

And what about the adjective form? Reminiscenct. When do we use that?

We use reminiscent when something makes us remember a particular person, place or thing. 

So this video is reminiscent of the video I made with Vicki and Jason about this topic.

But unlike reminisce, something reminiscent evokes every kind of memory, not only the happy ones,

This is reminiscent of not handing in my school homework. 

But what about Recall, It means remember, doesn’t it? 

Yes. It’s a little bit less common, but the meaning of recall is to bring a fact, event or a situation back into one’s mind. In other words, to remember something.

I don’t recall

And memorize?

That means to commit something to memory. In other words, to learn something so you don’t forget it, such as song lyrics or poetry.

Oh, I’m memorizing Shakespeare.

Or English Vocabulary.

Now, did we hear another way to say memorize as well? To learn by heart. 

Because it improves your memory to learn poetry by heart.

Yes, to learn by heart. Or in British English, to learn off by heart means the same thing. To memorize. And did you notice that I asked you to jog my memory?

Would you jog my memory?

What does that mean?

That means you needed me to help you remember because you had forgotten. You can say jog one’s memory in situations where you make someone remember something.

So there you have it. Lots of words and phrases to help you talk about memory. 

Oh, and here’s a gentle reminder to subscribe, and hit the notification bell if you haven’t done so already.

And shall we remind them to share the video with a friend who might find it useful?

:And while I remember, Thank you for watching and  and leaving your comments. We enjoy reading them.

Jay, where’s my report? 

It’s coming, Kathy. I promise. 

Bye now.