forgive but don't forget
- idiom
- Informal
:
perdona pero no olvides
- You should forgive but don't forget when someone hurts you, to avoid being hurt again.
Examples
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Many people forgive but don't forget, using their experiences to become wiser in the future.
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I can forgive but don't forget what he did.
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His motto was to forgive but don't forget after being deceived by his friends.
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Don't forgive but don't forget your mistakes!
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His motto was to forgive but don't forget after being deceived by his friends.
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Many people forgive but don't forget, using their experiences to become wiser in the future.
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You should forgive but don't forget when someone hurts you, to avoid being hurt again.
Antonyms
- Informal
42
4.8
To feel angry at someone for something they did in the past that hurt you
How Reconciled
- Informal
12
3.5
10
5.3
∞
1.4
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
forgive + but + don't + forget
The sense 'pardon someone but continue to remember the offence or lesson' is directly built from the literal meanings of 'forgive' (pardon) combined with the contrastive conjunction 'but' and the negated verb 'don't forget' (do not forget). This simple, compositional contrastive construction is cross-linguistically common and therefore a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will very likely infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Forgive but don't forget gives a simple image: forgive means let go of anger, and don't forget means keep a note in your mind about what happened. So it means 'pardon someone' but still 'remember the lesson' to avoid being hurt again.