LET Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar
Want to speak real English from your first
lesson?
Sign up for your free lifetime account at
EnglishClass101.com.
“Let us” is a salad ingredient.
Ah!
Lettuce.
Hi, everybody, my name is Alisha.
Welcome back to Know Your Verbs.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about
the verb “let.”
Lets go.
The basic definition of the verb, “let”
is to allow or to permit something.
So, allow or permit the conjugations of this
verb present tense, “let,” “let’s.”
Past tense, “let,” past participle tense,
“let,” progressive tense, “letting.”
Now, let’s talk about some additional meanings
of the verb, “let.”
The first additional meaning of this verb
for this lesson is to allow to enter or leave
a situation.
So, let’s look at some examples.
“Please let us in, it’s cold.”
When talking to a police officer, for example,
the police might say, “I’ll let you go with
a warning.
I’ll let you go.”
So, in the first example, “Please let us
in, please let us in.”
means please allow us to enter.
It’s cold outside so allow us to enter a building.
In the second example, the police officer
says, “I’ll let you go with a warning.”
“I’ll let you go with the warning,” means
“I’ll allow you to leave but I’ll give you
a warning, not a ticket.”
So, to allow to enter or to leave something.
The next additional meaning for this lesson
is used as an imperative.
So, imperative in it’s like to propose something
or to request something.
So, for example, “Let us see.”
Or, “Let us consider these options.”
Here, I’m not using the contracted, “let’s
see,” or “let’s consider,” it sounds
more formal to use, “let us see” or “let
us consider” but these are very common ways
to like to make a request or to make a proposal
to a group of people like, “Let’s see.”
“Let’s see what he does.”
It’s like, “This is my proposal, I request
we see something,” “I request we consider
something,” “Let us see,” “Let us
consider these options.”
The next additional meaning comes from British
English.
We do not use this in American English but
“to let” can mean to rent a room.
So, again we do not use this in American English
but this is common in British English.
“To let” in a sentence.
“He let a room to a young woman from another
city.”
Another one, “I’m letting a room from a
wealthy couple.”
Let’s talk about some variations of the verb,
“let.”
First one, “to let go.”
Actually, there are a few meanings of “to
let go.”
I’ll talk about two of them here.
One means, to dismiss someone from a job.
“To dismiss someone” means to fire someone
from their job, from their employment.
Examples.
“Management decided to let half of us go
this month.”
So, “Let half of us go.”
“Half of us” means half of the employees
go.
So, let go is split by the people affected
by the verb.
So, “Management decided to let half of us
go this month.”
Okay, another example.
“I’m sorry but we have to let you go.”
Again, the phrasal verb” let go” is separated
by the person affected by the action, “let
you go.”
In other words, “I’m sorry we have to fire
you,” “I’m sorry we have to dismiss you
from your employment.”
Okay, so “to let go” is another expression
to mean, to remove someone from their job.
It’s a nicer way to say, “You’re fired!”
To let someone go.
To go on to the second meaning of “to let
go,” we use this quite broadly to mean “to
relax” or “to release something.”
So, it can mean to release stress, for example.
In a sentence, “Try to let go of your stress.”
♪ Let it go ♪ Oh, God.
[unintelligible 0:04:51].
Okay.
Another example, “Let go of me!”
So, you can use this if someone is holding
you for some reason.
So, “Let go of me,” means release me,
“Let go of me! or, “Let go of her!”
“Let go of him,” means release her, release
him.
This is similar to the next variation of “let”
which is “let out.”
“To let out,” we use the word, “let
out” to free something, to release something,
usually though, something has been confined,
something has been kept.
An example of this is “Let me out of this
room.”
So, “let” and “out” are separated
by “me” so I am the person affected here
I am asking to be released from the room.
“Let me out of this room.”
Another example, “She let out a terrifying
scream.”
So, maybe inside her, there was this frightened
emotion she felt scared so she released that
emotion with a scream.
So, “She let out a terrifying scream.”
It was freed from her body.
The next variation is, “to let someone have
it.”
To let someone have it so this means like
to attack someone either physically or verbally.
Verbally means attacking someone with words,
to have an argument.
So, physically or verbally attack someone.
In a sentence, “My boss let me have it this
morning.
I made a huge mistake this week.”
So, in this sentence my boss let me have it,
probably means my boss shouted at me.
So, my boss attacked me verbally and there’s
a very low chance that someone’s boss will
physically attack them at work?
I don’t know what it’s like in your company,
but in our company, it’s probably not that
meaning.
So, in most cases, like, “My mother let
me have it.
I totally wrecked the car,” for example.
It’s like I was attacked verbally by someone.
So, “My boss let me have it this morning.
I made a mistake.”
So, in another example sentence, “Did you
see that fight? the smaller guy really let
the bigger guy have it.”
So, here, I said, “The smaller guy really
let the bigger guy have it.”
So, again in this example, the person affected
by the action, the person receiving the attack,
in this case, the bigger guy is the one who
is inserted into the verb phrase.
So, “The smaller guy really let the bigger
guy have it.”
So, the bigger guy was the one who was attacked
in this case.
So, to let someone have it means to attack
someone with words or with physical force.
I hope that helped you learn a little bit
more about the verb, “let.”
If you have any questions, if you know some
other meanings, if you have some other variations
you want to mention please feel free to leave
them in the comments along with any questions
you might have.
If you liked the video, please make sure to
give it a thumbs up.
Subscribe to the channel and check us out
at EnglishClass101.com for some other good
stuff.
Thanks very much for watching this episode
of Know Your Verbs.
We’ll see you again soon.
Bye.