In the case of oscillatory potentials, we give sufficient conditions for the oscillation of the forced nonlinear second order differential equations with delayed argument in the form x"(t) + q(t)\x(tau(t))\(gamma) sgn x(tau(t)) = f(t) in the linear (gamma = 1) and the superlinear (gamma > 1) cases. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.