に or の in this sentence, also any recomendations on where to post practice sentences?

Question

I am trying to say,

I always forget to turn on the lights

this is what I have translated

でんきを点けるのいつも忘れた。

I used の because what I learned is that a verb needs to be with の to add to an existing verb.

but now that I look at it, to turn on would it have to be used with に since it can be roughly translated to "to____"?

Also, is there a site where I can post my practice sentences and people can check it out? I know here you cant. Google translate isn't very good at translating the sentences so if its possible, I would like actual people correcting me.

thank you in advance.

Answer 1

In your English sentence "to turn on the lights" is the object of the verb "forget". In Japanese, in the same way, でんきを点けるの is the object of the verb 忘れる, so you need to use を to mark it as the object of the action:

でんきを点けるのをいつも忘れる。

Also check this question for more details.