71888
If I want to say "I forgot everything about it," I would go for "全部/全て忘れた".
But then I thought what about "何でも忘れた"? I know that 何でも is followed by
positive predicate. But somehow this sentence sounds strange to me. I am not
sure if it could also be the right way to say so.

Thank you!
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2019-09-18T09:54:10.327
71885
2019-09-19T08:43:42.400
35334
question
grammar
Is the sentence "何でも忘れた" correct?
I rarely say or hear 何でも忘れた as the meaning of "I forgot everything". I say
何もかも忘れた.

Darius Jahandarie explains 何でも well. 何でも忘れた makes sense as the meaning of "I
forgot anything". However, it is usually used with a modifier such as
彼は、勉強したことは何でも忘れた、and I think どれも and どんなことでも are more common.
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2019-09-18T13:28:41.450
71887
2019-09-19T08:43:42.400
2019-09-19T08:43:42.400
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answer
何でも generally means “any (one) thing”, not “everything”.

> 何でもいい → Anything is good.  
>  何でも忘れる → He forgets anything (he gets told).  
>  何でもできる → He can do anything.
>
> 全部できる → He can do everything (= all of the things).  
>  全部できた → He was able to do everything.  
>  全部忘れる → He will forget everything.  
>  全部忘れた → He forgot everything.  
>  全部いい → Everything is good.  
>  全部よかった → Everything was good.

The reason 何でも忘れた is weird is for the same reason “He forgot anything” is
weird in English: “anything” raises a potential but unspecified thing into the
discourse, which doesn’t work well with the past-tense, because you should
know what is being referred to. “Everything” raises all the things in the set
being discussed, which goes fine with the past-tense.

This is not to say past-tense doesn’t _ever_ work with “any”/何でも; in
particular stative predicates work okay: 何でもよかったのに一つも選んでくれなかった “Anything would
have been fine but he didn’t pick even one”. 何でもできたのに諦めて引きこもりになってしまった “He
could have done anything but he gave up and became a hikikomori.”

This seems to be because the state somehow protects the scope of the
quantifier, and doesn’t let it get affected by the past-tense 〜た. I feel like
its usage is more common in counterfactuals (like the 〜のに sentences above)
though it’s also possible outside of them: 私は(生まれてから)何でもできた. However this
feels somehow very slightly odd so I’d recommend against it unless you know
what you’re doing.
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2019-09-18T15:32:23.737
71888
2019-09-18T15:32:23.737
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer