let's

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

Translations

References

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

Anagrams

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