Re: Let us lettuce (was Re: Fiat Lux)
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, June 22, 2001, 21:37 |
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Muke Tever wrote:
> > Let's can ONLY be used as a first person plural imperative. No native
> > speaker would ever say "Let's dance" to mean "Allow us to dance". For
> > that meaning, you'd say "Let us dance".
>
> That's just a distinction between inclusive we "'s" (let's X) and exclusive
> we "us" (let us X).
Right ... a first person plural imperative is, by definition, inclusive.
> "Let us not talk falsely now; the hour is getting late"
Which has a distinctly formal feel to it. At any rate, let's can NEVER
be used as an exclusive, it automatically includes the person being
spoken to, while _let us_ can be used to include the listener, but it's
non-existent in colloquial speech, only used in formal speech.
--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
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