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A lo mejor el novato olvida todo su repertorio.

A lo mejor el novato olvida todo su repertorio.
Maybe the rookie forgets his whole repertoire.
From Lesson 418:Emphasizing nouns (todo un / toda una)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about A lo mejor el novato olvida todo su repertorio.

The current lesson teaches "todo un" for emphasis. Why does this sentence use "todo su" instead?
The phrase todo un (or toda una) is used to emphasize the degree or quality of a noun, like saying someone is a true professional (es todo un profesional). In this sentence, todo su repertorio isn't expressing an emphatic degree; it literally means the entirety of his repertoire. When you just want to say all of something, you use todo followed by a standard determiner like a definite article or, in this case, the possessive adjective su.
Since "a lo mejor" expresses doubt, shouldn't the verb "olvida" be in the subjunctive mood?
Surprisingly, no! Even though a lo mejor expresses uncertainty, it is a fixed expression that almost always triggers the indicative mood in everyday Spanish. This is a common exception to the general rule about doubt. If you swapped it for quizás or tal vez, you would typically use the subjunctive olvide.
Could I say "se olvida de" instead of just "olvida" here?
Yes, you absolutely can. In Spanish, you can use either the simple verb olvidar (olvida todo su repertorio) or the pronominal verb olvidarse de (se olvida de todo su repertorio). Both mean the exact same thing in this context, though olvidarse de is often more common in casual spoken Spanish.
The English translation says "forgets", but could it also imply that he "will forget" it?
Yes. Spanish frequently uses the present indicative like olvida to talk about immediate future events or predicted outcomes. While you could technically use the future tense olvidará, using the present tense after a lo mejor is very natural and conversational for predicting what might happen next.

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