leave behind

You can put the object in the middle or at the end. You can say leave behind my phone. You can also say leave my phone behind. Both are perfectly natural. Use it when you forget something physical. Use it when you are moving to a new city. It works for physical objects and abstract ideas like memories. Don't forget to change the verb tense! Use left behind for the past.

Use it at the airport when you forget your passport. Use it when talking about your legacy or what you want to be remembered for. It is great for travel stories. Use it when you are faster than someone else in a race. It is common in emotional conversations about moving on. If you are cleaning your room, you might leave behind the trash.

Do not use it if you intentionally give something to someone. That is just giving. Do not use it for people you are still hanging out with. If you are at a party, don't say you left behind your friend if they are standing next to you! Avoid it in very technical scientific reports. It feels a bit too narrative for a lab result. Also, do not confuse it with leftovers, which is specifically for food.

In Western culture, leaving something behind often relates to the 'American Dream' or immigration. Many stories focus on what people left behind in their home countries. It also appears in many famous songs and poems. It carries a sense of nostalgia or sometimes a clean break. There is a popular book series called 'Left Behind' about people remaining on Earth. It is a deeply emotional phrase in English literature.

You might hear leave it all behind. This means starting a completely new life. Left behind can also be an adjective. We talk about left-behind children or left-behind luggage. Sometimes people say don't look back to mean the same thing. In sports, commentators say a team was left behind in the dust. This means they lost by a lot.