English Lesson: Let’s

I never want to see you make this mistake again! Let’s get this right: don’t use a gerund in combination with “let’s”. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Oh, sure you do! I hear it all the time:

• Let’s eating.
• Let’s fighting.
• Let’s doing again.

Wrong. All wrong! Let’s eat. Let’s do it again. Let’s fight– I should point out this is actually calling someone out. You’re trying to pick a fight. Most of you are intending to say something along the lines of: don’t give up or keep it up.

In addition to keeping the verb at its base form, you can also include “go” to sound more conversational.

• Let’s go eat.
• Let’s go fight.
• Let’s go do it again.

Another common one I hear all the time: let’s shopping. The correct way to make the invitation is to say: let’s go shopping.

Some of you might be puzzled because you swear you’ve heard a native speaker use “let’s” in conjunction with a gerund. I’ve seen it too. They’re poking fun at bad grammar. A good example of this would be South Park’s anime episode. It just doesn’t make sense.

If you’re interested in learning more conversational English like this, connect with Jon to sign up for private English coaching. We’ll work on making you sound like a native speaker.