let's
/lɛts/verb
let's is spelled L-E-T-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “let's vs lets” about 6,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, let's means “Used to form the cohortative of verbs, equivalent of the first-person plural imperative in some other languages” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in let's?
| Letters | 4: L-E-T-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 145 times per million words; the 711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is let's?
Let's appears 145 times per million words in written English, the 711th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce let's?
- /lɛts/
Let's has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-let's.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with let's
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: less.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of let's
- let’s
- let us
- le'ss
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does let's mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
Used to form the cohortative of verbs, equivalent of the first-person plural imperative in some other languages.
Let’s eat lunch sometime, shall we?
- 2
Used to form the hortative of verbs, equivalent of the second-person plural imperative in some other languages, chiefly instructional
Let’s make sure we don’t forget proper punctuation, let's not let those mistakes happen again.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Let's in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense let us; forming first-person plural imperative:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does let's come from?
Contraction of let us. Compare non-contracted Dutch laat ons, German lass uns (speaker with one other person) / lasst uns (speaker with more other persons) and Swedish låt oss.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).