Is the sentence "I'll never forget the time when we spent together" correct?

You’re correct! The sentence is awkward + grammatically incorrect! “When” refers to a specific moment (when something happened), but the verb “spent” requires a direct object (the thing you spent). i.e. “I’ll never forget the time when we first met.” (Here, “when” introduces the moment of meeting).

If you're talking about being in each other's company, no. If you're talking about an instance where you both contributed to the cost of a major purchase, then yes. ("I'll never forget the time when we spent together to get that jetski.") And even then, "when" is optional, you can **always** err on the side of not using it (is your native language Spanish by any chance?). Also, it's "My English teacher and I," not "me and my English teacher". "I" is a subject pronoun, and it's more about etiquette than grammar but we always put "I" or "me" at the end of a group.

When does not work in this sentence. It should be taken out or replaced with "that"

You’re right. When, in that sentence is wrong. It needs a subordinate clause. ‘We spent together,’ isn’t a complete statement. If you want to use ‘when’, develop the sentence a bit further. I’ll never forget the time when we spent the summer together.

"I'll never forget the time ~~when~~ we spent together" If your English teacher thinks 'when' is correct in this sentence, they shouldn't be teaching English.

The parts in this are “I’ll never forget X” with “the time we spent together” being the X. Plug in any other action or noun into the sentence. I’ll never forget *winning the race* I’ll never forget *losing my dog* I’ll never forget *traveling abroad* I’ll never forget *the school* I’ll never forget *my parents* These are all actions the speaker is doing or nouns they are remembering. Saying “I’ll never forget” is referring to a specific action or noun the speaker is referring to in the past or potentially in the future if you add “To” to the end. “The time when we spent together” is not an action, in fact taken as is, it doesn’t even make grammatical sense. You could say “I’ll never forget *the time we spent together*” or “I’ll never forget *when we spent time together*” although the second one is kind of awkward.

The reason “when” doesn’t make sense is that in the sentence “I’ll never forget the time we spent together”, “time” is the direct object of spent within the subordinate clause (technically it’s an elided element that replaces time, but that’s besides the point), so it’s a relative clause where the head of the noun phrase corresponds with the DO within the relative clause. When you use “when”, the role the head would have within the relative clause changes. Instead of the object it is now a complement indicating the moment things occur in. Sure, semantically that’s not an issue by itself, but it means there’s no longer an object, and the transitive verb “spend” needs an object. Now we know when something is being spent, but we no longer know what’s being spent

The "when" is incorrect. This is because "time" is the object of "spent" (we spend the time, in this case). Hence "I'll never forget the time that we spent together", or just "the time we spent together". Your teacher is probably thinking of it like this "I'll never forget the time we spent $5000....", which is not how this sentence works

To be utterly pedantic, if you paid for something with something (or some*one!)* called 'together', then the sentence wouldn't be incorrect.

You are correct. Your teacher has misunderstood something: you’re talking about a quantity of time, not a moment in time. You could say “I’ll never forget the time (that) we spent together.” But you can’t say when, because you’re not talking about a single moment. You’re talking about many moments that happened over a long period.

You need a new English teacher lmao

Is your teacher also a non-native speaker?

It could be # I'll never forget the time when we spent all that money"

It would be grammatically/semantically valid if you were to insert an extra "time" after "spent"; though, it would be needlessly repetitive and clunky. Without that, the "when" disqualifies "the time" just before it from being the direct object of "spent", making it seem like "together" is the thing being spent, or at least something else other than "the time".

I love to spend. You love to spend. I spend all the time and so do you. Spending is so important to both of us. I'll never forget the time when we spent together. We shared our passion for spending, and it was so special to me. We should spend together more often. If something like what is in the paragraph above was intended then your teacher is correct. But if the sentence is meant to be talking about spending time together, you are correct.

The sentence *can* be correct, but not in this context. The only way it would be correct is if the speaker was referring to a past event where each party had made a purchase. So in this context "spent" meaning the past tense of "spend money". "Remember the time we went to the mall and I bought a hat and you bought a pair of shoes"? "Yes. I'll never forget the time when we spent together".

He is wrong in this case. “I enjoyed the time we spent together,” is the way to go. You’re not actually referring to an event, you’re referring to the act of spending time with someone.

A native speaker would say "I'll never forget the time we spent together." You could use "when" in a construction like this: "I'll never forget that time when we ____" Where the blank is a one time event in the past tense, e.g.: "I'll never forget that time when we found that human tooth down on Delancey."

When is wrong - it could be replaced by "that" or "which" and be correct but neither is needed the sentence is good as "I'll never forget the time we spent together." When in this type of usage would have to refer to a certain time and be used instead of "the time" like: "I'll never forget (when/the time) we won the science fair and stayed up all night eating pizza" "I'll never forget (when/the time) we spent all our money from our first paycheck on comic books and candy."

Your teacher is absolutely wrong. The verb "spent" requires an object. *1. We spent time together.* *2. We spent the evening together.* 3. But not: *\*We spent together* Therefore, you could say something like "I'll never forget the time that we spent together," where "that" refers to "time." However, if you use "when" no object is furnished (e.g. "I ran" doesn't require an object). *4. I'll never forget the time when we ran together.* *5. But not: \*I'll never forget the time when we spent together* Basically, 5 is just another version of 3, which is clearly wrong.

The student has become the master - you're correct. xD

When is not just not needed, it is incorrect, IMHO.

Omit the when, and it's perfectly alright : "I'll never forget the time we spent together." When can also be replaced with "that", and although the sentence would be a little awkward, it would be quite right. "I'll never forget the time that we spent together." I'm also fairly sure "which" can be used instead of when too. "I'll never forget the time which we spent together." When is correct for a lot of verbs in this sentence. For example, "the time when we were together", "the time when we danced together" etc. The reason why "when" is incorrect in this case is not because it's in the sentence, but rather because it doesn't work with the verb (to spend).

I am a native English speaker and a writer. The word 'when' is completely inappropriate in that sentence.

No. Leave out the "when."

So, when you say "the time when," you're talking about a specific incident: the time when we raided Mom's makeup and painted our faces like warriors, the time when we went to the pool but forgot to bring towels, and so on. So, the sentence, "I'll never forget the time when we spent together," can only refer to a specific incident of "we spent together." That specific incident can, at best, be rephrased to "the time we bought something together," using "spend" in the sense of "spend money, purchase." However, the more common sentence (and meaning!) would be, "I'll never forget the time we spent together." This indicates a broader range of time; in fact, it's all the time you've ever had in each other's presence. You are referring to all the memories at once, and claiming you won't forget any of them. You don't need "when" because you're not talking about a single, specific incident.

You’re right. “When” is not needed at all.

Get a new English teacher.

You could say 'I'll never forget the time when we were together'. The 'when' is optional in this case, but as has already been said it is wrong when you use spent. I don't know why though, we're going to need a serious grammar expert for that. But you could say 'the time *which* we spent together' (or *that* we spent together).