Leave behind means to leave something somewhere, often by accident: an umbrella in a taxi, a phone in a café. The second meaning is to move past something and not return to it: your past, your home town, your rivals. Be left behind, about a person, means to fall behind others at school, at work or in life.
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leave + sth/sb + behind; leave it/them behind; leave behind + long noun phrase; be/feel left behind
- I left my umbrella behind in the taxi and only noticed when it started raining.
- When she moved to London, she left her old job and her old habits behind.
- Students who miss a few weeks of maths can quickly feel left behind.
What changed
First versionMy umbrella? I think I left behind it in the taxi.
RevisionMy umbrella? I think I left it behind in the taxi.
If the object is a pronoun like it, him or them, it goes between the verb and the particle: left it behind. With a noun, both orders work: left my umbrella behind and left behind my umbrella. The correction only moved it.
Don't confuse left behind and left out. Left out means excluded, not invited or not included: I felt left out when they planned the trip without me. Left behind describes someone who couldn't keep up with the others or wasn't taken along: Don't worry, nobody will be left behind.
Your turn
Our guide counted everyone twice so that nobody would be ___ at the service station.
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left behind — The group is leaving the service station, and the guide makes sure nobody stays there, which is left behind. Left out means a person wasn't invited or included in something, and it has nothing to do with a place.
Describe something you left behind somewhere. Say where you left it and whether you got it back.
Last winter I left my gloves behind on the train, but I got them back from lost property the next day.
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