let's

See also: lets, Lets, LETS, and lēts

English

Alternative forms

• let us (more formal)

Etymology

Contraction of let us. Compare non-contracted Dutch laat ons, German lass uns (speaker with one other person) / lasst uns (speaker with more other persons) and Swedish låt oss.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /lɛts/
• Rhymes: -ɛts

Verb

let’s

1. Used to form the cohortative of verbs, equivalent of the first-person plural imperative in some other languages.

   Let’s eat lunch sometime.

   I say let’s dance.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     Let’s get coffee!

     Audio (US):

     (file)

2. Used to form the hortative of verbs, equivalent of the second-person plural imperative in some other languages, chiefly instructional

   Let’s make sure we don’t forget proper punctuation.

   Hey guys, let’s check to make sure that we proofread.

   Y’all, let’s stop talking please, y’all are driving me up the wall!

Usage notes

Negation of let’s is let’s not in standard English.

• Let’s not talk about it.

Don’t is also used, but it is often considered non-standard.

• Let’s don’t talk about it. (US)
• Don’t let’s talk about it. (British)

Tag questions with let’s typically take shall we?.

• Let’s go to the beach, shall we?

Derived terms

• let's be having you
• let's dance
• let's get the party started
• let's get this circus on the road
• let's get this party started
• let's go
• let's have it
• let's hear it for someone
• let's know
• let's not and say we did
• let's play
• let's roll
• let's say
• let's see

 

Translations

let us; forming first-person plural imperative

• Arabic: لِـ (ar) (li-) (+ the first-person plural of the verb), هَيَّا (ar) (hayyā), دَعْنَا (daʕnā)

  South Levantine Arabic: خلينا (khalīna)

• Armenian: արի (hy) (ari), քել (hy) (kʻel)
• Azerbaijani: haydı, gəl, gəlin (az), -ək, -aq
• Bulgarian: ха́йде (bg) (hájde) (+ "да" + the first-person plural of the verb)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 我們／我们 (wǒmen) + (verb) (optional: 吧 (ba))

• Crimean Tatar: aydı
• Danish: lad os
• Dutch: laten we
• Finnish: (expressed with the passive present indicative of the verb, or in archaic language, the first-person plural present imperative)
• French: (expressed with the first-person plural of the verb)
• German: lass/lasst uns (de), (expressed with the first-person plural of the verb) + wir, wollen wir (plus infinitive)
• Haitian Creole: annou, ann
• Hebrew: בוא m (bo), בואי f (bo'i), בואו pl (bo'u) + (the first-person plural of the verb)
• Hindi: (infinitive of the verb) हमको ... दो (hi) (hamko ... do)
• Hungarian: -junk, -jünk
• Icelandic: við skulum
• Indonesian: mari (id), ayo (id)
• Interlingua: vamos
• Italian: (expressed with the first-person plural subjunctive of the verb)
• Japanese: (volitional form is used, e.g. -ō/-mashō)
• Khmer: តស់ (tɑh)
• Korean: (hortative form is used): ᆸ시다 (psida), 자 (ko) (ja), 시죠 (sijo)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: (expressed with the first-person plural subjunctive of the verb)
• Malay: mari (ms), ayuh (ms)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: -ъя (-ʺja)

• Old English: uton
• Polish: -my
• Portuguese: -emos, -amos, vamos (pt), bora (pt)
• Romanian: (hai) să + first-person plural subjunctive, eg. (hai) să mergem, haide (ro)
• Russian: дава́й(те) (ru) (daváj(te)) + (the first-person plural of the verb), (expressed with the first-person plural of the verb)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: hajdemo, (slang, contraction) aj'mo, hajde (sh)

• Spanish: (expressed with the first-person plural subjunctive of the verb), vamos a + infinitive
• Thai: ...กันเถอะ (...gan tə̀)
• Turkish: hadi (tr), haydi (tr), -alım (tr), -elim (tr)
• Turkmen: -aly, -eli, -alyň pl, -eliň pl, -eýli, -aýly, geliň pl
• Vietnamese: hãy (vi)
• Yiddish: לאָמיר (lomir)

References

• American English and British English, Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language, Tom McArthur, 1998.

Anagrams

• LTEs, SELT, TESL, tels, elts, ELTs, TLEs, lest