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"Let's" in English does not mean "let us". I mean, it literally does, but language is not literal. For the record, I also dislike the familiarity.
by simonask 1y ago
"Let's" in English does not mean "let us".
I mean, it literally does, but language is not literal.
For the record, I also dislike the familiarity.
- card_zero 1y agoI dislike the dishonesty. Compare to this line from Office Space: "I'm gonna need you to go ahead and work Saturday". Here go ahead implies that you're being given permission to joyfully do some work you were eager to do. In the Microsoft example, let's implies that this is a bright idea for something fun for you to do with Microsoft, your friend with your best interests at heart.
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoAs a non-English speaker, my understanding of no ahead did not have any joyful connotation. It was rather to express that someone will need to do something that has an initial friction, so not enjoyable.
- bregma 1y agoYour understanding does not match the broadly accepted idiomatic meaning of the expression. The humour comes from the implied inversion of sacrifice, a kind of irony.
- efdee 1y agoI can't think of any situation where "let's" does not mean "let us"?
- tommica 1y ago"Let's go!"
- lionkor 1y agoLiterally "let us go", there's no way around the literal meaning
- RiverCrochet 1y agoLet literally means "allow." In many cases where this is said, the person saying it isn't blocking/preventing/gatewaying anyone from going. So the literal meaning of "allow" is not intended.
- esafak 1y ago"Let's go" never means "let us go". Just try to articulate it as such! I can't.
- toast0 1y agoShall we go? Let us go / Let's go / Let's If you don't want to use the full form, it shan't stop me.
- esafak 1y agoI don't know if I'm being clear. Say you and your family were imprisoned. You would never demand to be released by saying "let's go!". Your bemused family might well ask "Where, to the other corner of the cell?"
- efdee 1y agoYou can't always replace "let us" with "let's", but you can always replace "let's" with "let us".
- simonask 1y agoYou truly cannot. Somebody else brought up the example of “let’s go!” versus “let us go” - not the same thing by a long shot. “Let’s” in English has a distinct meaning from “let us”, and that is to politely and casually (but firmly) suggest a course of action. I remember touring a Polish salt mine a couple of years ago. The guide was very good, but her English had a few quirks, among them that she seemed to like the phrase “let’s let me to show you …”. It’s wrong, but you can immediately understand that she meant “please let me show you”.
- danaris 1y agoYou and simonask are speaking at different levels of literality. Yes, literally, "let's" expands to "let us". But idiomatically, "let's/let us <do this thing>" does not mean "allow us to <do this thing>"; it means "I am requesting that we now <do this thing> together". Now, I'm not entirely sure why simonask felt this level of literality was a useful one to bring up here, but it is true.
- efdee 1y agoTrue, but the point was not that they were asking permission, it's the "let us do this together" meaning to which the OP takes offense. He feels like it implies he cannot do it on his own.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]