This is the 11702nd most frequent Russian word.
забывал
"Forgot" or "was forgetting" (past tense, masculine singular).
In this sentence, "забывал" is used to indicate a repeated or habitual action in the past, showing how the person regularly forgot something.
Когда я был ребёнком, я постоянно забывал о домашних заданиях.
When I was a child, I constantly forgot about my homework.
Here, "забывал" expresses a pattern of forgetting due to nervousness, emphasizing the cause of forgetting.
Он так нервничал перед экзаменом, что забывал все формулы.
He was so nervous before the exam that he forgot all the formulas.
In this context, "забывал" illustrates sporadic and multiple occurrences of forgetting within a context or timeframe.