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Why is the title Forget Something? and not Forgot Something?

I believe that it may come from Did you forget something? but this (the title as in the picture) does not sound right on its own. I would rather use the past tense, like in Gone With The Wind.

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  • I think that yes, it is a grammatical mistake and it should have been "forgot".
    – Bella Swan
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 7:17

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Yes, it's short for "Did you forget something?". The first two words are often elided in informal speech, so "Forget something?" is a common way to say it. This works for other verbs too: "[Did you] miss me?" "[Did you] finish yet?" And sometimes even for non-verbs: "[Are you] ready yet?"

"Forgot something?" also works, but it's not as informal. That's probably why the person making the sign chose "forget": they want the title to sound informal, because the rest of the message is formal.

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As the answer by Anonymous alludes to, "Forget something?" is a bit friendlier and colloquial, which is the overall tone they want to achieve when they are offering to help you and trying to build rapport.

In addition, "Forgot something?" has a bit of an accusatory tone and seems more akin to saying, "[Haven't you] forgot[ten] something?" which definitely doesn't mesh well with the conversational tone the hotel staff wants to take.

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