Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- Contraction of let us.
Wiktionary
- A contraction of let us used to form the first-person plural imperative of verbs.
Examples
“They will not compromise on: The term "let's get physical" was made for Aries; they love sports and exercise, and that also means passion in the bedroom.”
“And the title let's you know right up front what's on the line.”
“However, since Tebow was portrayed as a fawning sycophant hanging on Jesus' every word let's face it: If he met Jesus that's exactly how he would act, Christian leaders were outraged over the audacity of the skit.”
The Huffington Post: Todd Hartley: I'm With Stupid: Apparently God Just Likes Tom Brady Better
“Since the 1990s I have engaged with the Met and gained a working knowledge of some of its operational processes, and I know of none that can be described as "let's just leave them to it".”
“My yoga turns out to be flamenco, and let's just say those poses are just as hard to master.”
The Huffington Post: Patricia Zohn: CultureZohn: Poser, My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
“Prior to any policy-making, let's first have a conversation about what "reinventing America" actually means and, above all, how we make it happen.”
The Huffington Post: Dean Garfield: Reinventing America Requires a New Mindset
“This is getting a bit disturbing, so let's imagine a different hypothetical situation: what if there were a nation made up of individuals who had a substantial hold on their inner peace?”
The Huffington Post: Olivia Rosewood: Meditating Our Way To World Peace?
“So, please clear your schedule, put your pom-poms on, and let's go!”
The Huffington Post: Michael Winship: The Bush Legacy Strikes Out American Justice
“In honor of my girl crush; let's get excited about winter dressing again, shall we?”
“But for now, let's take a quick look back at the week that was, and then spend the rest of the column examining the "narrative" of Obama's speech.”
The Huffington Post: Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [153] -- SOTU-palooza
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘let's’.
-
Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
-
Signposting phrases
to kick off, first, then, so, kick off, let's, let's begin, moving on, as you can see, that conclude, next, after that and 5 more...
-
The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
-
Desserts of Random Palavery
Another of my Random Palavery lists, still an eclectic listing of terms that catch my eye and ear. It can't be helped. I am, (as a former partner phrased it) a word-bird.
chablis, ervy, keek, armiger, argand lamp, arblast, milch-cow, cow-calf units, durrus, tom noddy, low-bell, cargo cult and 139 more...
-
quirks of grammar
Particularly interesting grammatical quirks.
Yes, I said interesting. Who are you looking at so strangely?likely, must, rumoured, stride, there's, try, word, bush, hamstring, let's, 's, sheep and 4 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for let's.
frindley Love that song! Jan 25, 2009
garyth123 Lithuanians and Letts do it
Let's do it, let's fall in love
Cole Porter Jan 25, 2009
rolig Really interesting analysis. Thanks, Qroqqa! Jan 22, 2009
qroqqa As I went home from work I remembered the Noël Coward song 'Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans', so evidently I was wrong about this being a less formal variant, as his usage sounds old-fashioned. Well, now that I'm home, I can look up CGEL.
* looks up * Okay, it's just says 'don't let's' is a little more informal. Moreover, the first person lacks any scope difference between the two, whereas in a second person imperative there's a clear difference in meaning between:
Don't let us go with you. (= forbid us to)
Let us not go with you. (= allow us to refrain)
And yes, idioms such as 'let me see', and 'let me get this straight' suggest it's the 'let' that's the imperative. Jan 22, 2009
sionnach Alexandra Fuller's account of her childhood in Rhodesia is called "Don't let's go to the dogs tonight". Well worth reading. Jan 22, 2009
hernesheir Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Jan 22, 2009
qroqqa Quirk of grammar 1: The only first person imperative verb form in English. As it can be made two words, 'let us', in very careful speech (e.g. sermons, oratory), it may be that it should be analysed as a contraction of 'let us', where 'let' is the first person imperative verb. Clearly distinct from the second person imperative (e.g. 'Let us go' addressed to a kidnapper) because that can't be contracted.
Quirk 2: The only trace of an inclusive/exclusive distinction in English, since it's only used as first person inclusive.
Quirk 3: It straddles the border between lexical and functional verbs, since its negative can be made in two ways: with do-support like a lexical verb ('Don't let's go'), or without it ('Let's not go').
Quirk 3 note 1: Not everyone has both options: the do-support option sounds considerably less formal to me, and may well be ungrammatical for some people. (Whereas in the second person imperative it's the only possibility: 'Don't let us go until you get the ransom.')
Quirk 3 note 2: As the 'let's not' form can't be contracted (*let'sn't, *letn't's), it's not like a true auxiliary (these have negative forms such as 'mustn't', 'won't'). Rather, the negation may actually be of the catenative complement clause, i.e. in 'Let's not go', it might be that 'not go' is the clause attached under the imperative 'let's'. Jan 22, 2009