let's

See also lets, Lets, and LETS

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Contraction

let’s

1. A contraction of let us used to form the first-person plural imperative of verbs.

   Let’s eat lunch sometime.

   Let’s dance.

Usage notes

Let’s is always inclusive, which refers to both the speaker and the addressee, while let us is commonly exclusive, which refers only to the speaker.

• Let’s go, we are late. - inclusive we
• Release us and let us go! - exclusive we

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. (UK)

Derived terms

• let’s go
• let’s roll

Translations

let us; forming first-person plural imperative

• Arabic: دعنا (ar) (da3naa) (+ the first person plural of the verb)
• Armenian: արի (hy) (ari), դավայ (hy) (davay), քել (hy) (k’el)
• Chinese:

  trad. 我們, simpl. 我们 (pinyin: wǒmen) + (verb) (optional: 吧 (ba))

• Dutch: laten we
• Finnish: -kaamme
• French: (expressed with the first person plural of the verb)
• German: lasst uns (de), (expressed with the first person plural of the verb) + wir
• Haitian Creole: annou, ann
• Hebrew: בוא (he) (bo) m, בואי (he) (bo'i) f, בואו (he) (bo'u) pl + (the first person plural of the verb)
• Hindi: (infinitive of the verb) हमको ... दो (hi) (hamko ... do)
• Japanese: (volitional form is used, e.g. -ō/-mashō)

• Korean: (hortative form is used for honorifics, e.g. -(u)psida), (normal forms for the polite language, e.g. -yo/-eoyo/-ayo), (hortative form is used for the plain language, e.g. -ja)
• Latin: (they use in the verb subjuctive) simus (la) (let's be), (they use an verb in the subjunctive) simus (la) (let's be)
• Malay: mari (ms), ayuh (ms)
• Polish: -my (pl)
• Portuguese: -emos (pt), -amos (pt), vamos (pt)
• Romanian: (hai) să + first-person plural subjunctive, eg. (hai) să mergem, haide (ro)
• Russian: давай(те) (ru) (daváj(te)) + (the first person plural of the verb), (expressed with the first person plural of the verb)
• Serbo-Croatian: hajdemo (sh), (slang, contraction) aj'mo (sh), hajde (sh)
• Thai: ...กันเถอะ (th) (...gan tùh)
• Turkish: hadi (tr)
• Vietnamese: hãy (vi)

References

• let, don’t let’s, let’s, let’s don’t, let’s not, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, Kenneth G. Wilson, 1993.
• American English and British English, Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language, Tom McArthur, 1998.

Anagrams

• ELTs
• lest
• TESL