I'm trying to figure out how to say "to leave" as in to leave something behind somewhere. Would you say one, two, or three?

How to say “left my bag in the car”

1. 丢了我钱包在出租车里
2. 留了我得钱包在出租车里
3. 忘了我的钱包在出租车里
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    You can also simply just say - you don't nessecarily need to say 'left'. – Mou某 Aug 17 '14 at 16:13

Usually you say 1. 我钱包拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了 or 2.我把钱包拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了。

In 1, '我钱包' equals to '我的钱包'('My wallet') which is the subject and the verb is in passive but'被'is omitted. The grammatical expression could be 我钱包被拉/丢/忘（在）出租车里了，but no one would say out '被'here.

In 2, you use '把' as @wuyefeibao suggested and 我 is the subject, the verb being used in active voice. In both cases, the preposition 在 may be omitted, indicating the urgent situation when you're anxious and depressed so you have no mood to speak out every function word.

Regarding your own translations 1. 丢了我钱包在出租车里 and 2. 留了我的钱包在出租车里 3. 忘了我的钱包在出租车里 are not target-like expressions. In translation 2, 留 is not the same as 忘，丢, implying you intentionally left the bag in the car (because you didn't want to carry it with you, or you wanted to give it a gift to the driver, lol?).



Use "把" to emphasis


In English "leave" has two meanings:

1) Stay something at some place because of carelessness or without notice. 2) Put something in some place on purpose.

Just depends on your real situation contents. (However, I prefer 1th meaning, so I'd say "我不慎把包包落在车里了。")

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