“I remember” or “I remember” ?: don't make the mistake anymore!

"Do you remember the Seine?

Do you remember how it comes back to me, the old song comes back to me when we had nothing, ”sang the late Anne Sylvestre.

Jacques Prévert preferred the second to him: "Remember Barbara, (...) you walked smiling, fulfilled, delighted, dripping in the rain, remember Barbara".

So which verb should you choose?

Their meaning is so close that we often use each other, failing that.

Remember + direct object complement

This should never be followed by the preposition "of".

To signify that we remember something, the custom is to say: "I remember my childhood as if it were yesterday", and not "I remember my childhood".

The French Academy emphasizes that we cannot say “I remember that”, or “I remember it”, because this verb introduces a direct complement (“who, what”).

It cannot therefore be formed with the preposition "en", which suggests an indirect complement ("en / de qui, en / de quoi").

The custom is therefore to say: "I remember it" or "I remember it".

Remember more

This one, on the contrary, never separates from its preposition "of".

It is followed by an additional indirect object.

Example: "I remember my childhood as if it were yesterday", or "I remember this child, he came yesterday".

Unlike the verb “remember”, it is okay to say “I remember”, or “I remember that”.

Conclusion: we remember someone and we remember something.