How to say "let's" in Spanish?

Question

I wanna translate the following into Spanish.

Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's all press "commit" button!

I've been searching around for a while but seems that there is no equivalent for let's in Spanish.
Some special cases like let's go, let's make it happen, let's make love have been asked on other forums but seems there is no special grammar like in English?

Related: “Let's go” in Spanish – Charlie Oct 03 '16 at 08:20 — Charlie, Oct 03 '16 at 08:20

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '16 at 22:43

11

You need to use the present subjunctive in the first person plural form for the action intended.

Hagamos clic en el botón «commit»
^{Let's click on the button "commit"}
Hablemos
^{Let's talk}
Pensemos en algo...
^{Let's think about something...}

answered Oct 02 '16 at 22:43

user0721090601

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Then is this translation true? For the English sentence Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's all press "commit" button! we should say Vamos a hacer un sitio para teledetección y fotogrametría real. Vamos a hacer clic todos en el botón «commit» in Spanish – Sepideh Abadpour Oct 10 '16 at 13:18
it should be hagamos un sitio [...] – Brian H. Oct 27 '17 at 10:58

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:53

10

I usually translate "let's" with the Spanish vamos a. Using the examples in guifa's answer (which is perfectly correct):

¡Vamos a hacer clic en el botón "commit"!
¡Vamos a hablar!
¡Vamos a pensar en algo!

A special case would be the translation of "let's go!":

¡Vamos!

Please note that this answer may be limited to some regions. At least I know that it is valid in Spain. In other regions, as commented below, you can use vámonos, vayamos or just stick to the subjunctive as pointed by guifa.

Also note the use of the exclamation marks, because if you don't write them, it seems that you are just saying "we're going to press the commit button" (vamos a pulsar el botón commit), as in response to the question "¿qué vais a hacer?".

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:53

Community

1

answered Oct 03 '16 at 06:47

Charlie

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Dear downvoter, I sincerely don't mind to be downvoted, but could you at least explain why my answer deserves such a fate so I can have a chance to improve it? – Charlie Oct 03 '16 at 14:18
It's interesting to note that the form vamos in this case is actually subjunctive (cf. Portuguese vá, vás, vá, vamos, vades, vão), but has stuck around almost exclusively in Spanish in this command-ish form. – user0721090601 Oct 03 '16 at 14:52
@guifa actually I'd swear I've seen it as 1st pers. pl. of the imperative case in some grammar book. – Rafael Oct 03 '16 at 16:04
@CarlosAlejo I wasn't, but the problem I see here is that vamos a is either not valid in just every context, or a regionalism mostly valid in Spain rather than in all of the Spanish-speaking world. – Rafael Oct 03 '16 at 16:11
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@rafael that's more of a terminological issue. Traditional Spanish grammar only has three imperative forms for each verb (all affirmative): tú, vos, vosotros (the ones for ir are ve, andá, and id). The other forms (negative, formal, and 1st person plural) are considered to be uses of the subjuntivo exhortativo, but functionally, they're commands, and so some grammars will —not at all incorrectly, since it's more of a "how you define them" thing— teach them as imperative. – user0721090601 Oct 03 '16 at 16:14
Una alternativa, a ¡Vamos!, sería ¡Vámonos!, término que aprendí mientras viví en Venezuela. – David Oct 03 '16 at 17:56
Then is this translation true? For the English sentence Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's all press "commit" button!, we should say Vamos a hacer un sitio para teledetección y fotogrametría real. Vamos a hacer clic todos en el botón «commit» in Spanish @Rafael (i didn't mention Carlos because he'll be notified automatically) – Sepideh Abadpour Oct 10 '16 at 13:17
@David i didn't mention guifa because he'll be notified by commenting on his answer – Sepideh Abadpour Oct 10 '16 at 13:20
@sepideh please note that I have improved my answer, so a proper translation should be the same you propose but adding exclamation marks. On the other hand, I really appreciate my answer being marked as the accepted one, but I sincerely think that guifa's answer is better. I was just giving an alternative, but I would translate your sentences as "hagamos real un sitio web para teledetección y fotogrametría, ¡pulsemos todos el botón commit!" – Charlie Oct 10 '16 at 13:31
In fact at first, I had translated based on guifa's answer as • Hagamos un sitio para teledetección y fotogrametría real. Hagamos todas clic en el botón «commit», what do you think about this one? and what's that ¡ in the second verb of your suggestion in the previous comment? if it's an exclamation mark, they why don't we use it in the first verb, too? something like ¡hagamos – Sepideh Abadpour Oct 10 '16 at 13:42
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@sepideh according to the Spanish rules, you can say "hagamos todas clic" if you are all women. Otherwise, use "hagamos todos". The rest seems OK. And the exclamation mark in the second verb is because I wanted to give emphasys only to the second part of the sentence. But you can put that mark at the start instead, or just get rid of them. – Charlie Oct 10 '16 at 13:52

How to say "let's" in Spanish?

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