Please correct/verify if I am using this sentence grammatically wrong.
I wrote an email to all team members. The conclusion of the email ended with a command to tell everyone to win:
"Lets win all games this week."
Because there is a hidden subject "everyone", the sentence is correct:
"[Everyone] Lets win two games this week."
A good friend told me the sentence should be "Let's win all games this week." I understand her point let's is a contraction of let us. Thus, the sentence is "Let us win all games this week."
Here are my questions:
- Is there anything wrong with a sentence, "Lets win all games this week."?
I found many criticisms using "lets" on the web. - If question 1 is correct, which is more appropriated to use in the context above?
The way I understand these two sentences are different.
To let means to "allow".
Let him in. Allow him to come in.
The word "let's" means "let us"
The first comes with the pronoun "us".
The second does not come with the pronoun "us".
She lets [allows] him to paint. She allows him to paint.
So the rule is that when you mean let us, or allow us, or permits us, you use let's. The following examples do not have the plural pronoun [us] contraction so no apostrophe is used.
She lets me paint. She allows me to paint.
She lets them paint. She allows them to paint.
She lets him or her paint. She allows him or her to paint.
"let" we all know how to use it Agreed!? Thats the easy part:
"Let" me borrow a pen.
"Let" me leave this place.
"Let" it go please.
I would like it if she'd "let" me go.
"Lets" is to show action referring only to one thing:
My brother "lets" me hold his car.
She always "lets" me win.
My mother always "lets" my sister get away with things.
"Let's" is a contraction word meaning "let us". So, if let us doesn't fit then neither does "let's"
"Let's" go to the mall. "Let us" go to the mall
--Correct
My brother "let's" me borrow his car. My brother "let us" me borrow the car.
-- See how this is obviously wrong?
If this "does not" help you then nothing will. If this "doesn't" help you nothing will.
See just remember if the contraction word has to fit if you put the two words used to make the word fits.
Have a nice day.
There is a valid use of 'lets' though.
He lets me play.
Everyone lets me eat their leftovers.
There's a famous line from a poem or story that goes something like, "Let's you and I..." or "Let's you and me" where 'you and me' is the redundant direct object of 'us' in 'let us' or where 'you and I' is the subject. (You and I let us).
I never heard of a verb "lets", Ntran, your friend was right:
The correct form here is "Let's" (the contraction of "let+us"), the imperative.
The missing apostrophe in "lets" (wherever this occurs) is definitely either a typing mistake or it wasn't used just out of laziness.
Oh - I forgot:
The form "lets" you refer to with your link, Ntran, is the inflected form of the verb "let" for the 3rd person singular, present tense (a case of verb agreement, as you correctly noted):
I let
You let
He, she, it "lets"
E.g.: "I let him go" vs. "he lets him go".
In the sentence you gave above, it is the imperative however where only the form "let's" (from let+us) is correct.
If it is a contraction for "let us" then "let's" is correct."
If it is the 3rd person singular for "allows" then "lets" is correct as in "John lets his sister use his computer."
There is also this use: "She lets apartments for income."
Let = Rent.
But maybe that is the same general use as allow.
Lets is a singular form; it goes with singular subject.
I thought this is a basic rule of subject and verb agreement.
(correct) She lets us paint.
Letis a noun used in tennis scoring
The plural is lets.
let
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -s
Etymology: Middle English lette, lett, let, from letten to let (hinder)
1 : something that prevents or impedes : OBSTRUCTION
<free to inquire without let or hindrance -- B.G.Gallagher>
<the task of a socialist movement to challenge without let the moral values of society -- Lloyd Harrington>
<perennials reseeding themselves without outside meddling help or let -- William Faulkner>
2 : a stroke, point, or service especially in racket and net games that does not count and must be replayed
http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com