Cair no Esquecimento: Say an Idea Was Forgotten
Cair no esquecimento means to fade from memory or be forgotten. Use it for a plan, tradition, or detail people stopped remembering.
Real Life Portuguese · 4 min read · Updated October 14, 2026
The short answer
Cair no esquecimento means to be forgotten or fade from people’s memory. It often describes a plan, tradition, story, or public issue that was once remembered but gradually received less attention.
Use cair no esquecimento for something people stopped remembering
The subject is the thing that was forgotten: a ideia caiu no esquecimento, while várias ideias caíram no esquecimento. The expression is figurative and can sound reflective or literary depending on context.
A ideia do clube de leitura caiu no esquecimento.
The idea for the book club was forgotten.
Não deixe o projeto cair no esquecimento.
Don’t let the project fade from memory.
Com o tempo, a tradição caiu no esquecimento.
Over time, the tradition was forgotten.
Compare cair no esquecimento with esquecer
Esquecer is a direct verb: esqueci a senha (I forgot the password). Cair no esquecimento emphasizes a longer process in which something is no longer remembered or discussed.
Use de or no according to the expression: cair no esquecimento is the fixed pattern. Do not translate the English passive literally; Portuguese often uses this idiom or simply dizer que algo foi esquecido.
Esqueci o nome da rua.
I forgot the street name.
A história da casa caiu no esquecimento por muitos anos.
The story of the house was forgotten for many years.
A equipe deixou o assunto de lado por enquanto.
The team set the issue aside for now.
Put it into practice
Use cair no esquecimento for a gradual fading from memory; use esquecer for an individual act of forgetting something.
Quick practice
Which Portuguese example matches “I forgot the street name”?
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