We would use “Que + noun + subjunctive.” Kind of like “May the Force be with you” become “Que la Force soit avec toi” (“soit” = subjunctive for “être”). That’s exactly right, thank you for expanding on the topic □ġ – “Let’s sing” would actually be “Chantons !” – as the verb is “chanter” (with a t.) But your reasoning is exactly correct.Ģ – Yes, “Let + noun” is weird in French. So in summary, for a an expression like “Lets sing”, drop the let, use the “nous” form with the verb, so we get “chansons” (we sing -> let’s sing) ! Ce n’est pas difficile de comprendre, n’est pas ? The above is great but here “let” is followed by a verb (let’s dance), I suggest others also consider videos on let followed by a noun, the most obvious being from Star Wars, “Luke let the force (hence a noun) be with you” (which is French can also by “May the force be with you”) and how in French the verb after the noun is managed by the subjunctive rather than using the verb laisser (which is often better used as to “leave something behind” rather than let) In casual English we use “lets” but in fact it is “let’s” and the apostrophe indicates that a letter has been lost, in this case a “u” so really it is, “let us” – this is important, because in French “us” (which indicates a group of people including myself) = “nous” in French and hence this is the reason that we must use the “nous” form of the verb – so as Geraldine says “Let’s dance” = (drop the let) “us dance” (or in better English “we dance”) = nous dansons then drop the “nous” in the imperative form so we have just “dansons”. “On peut parler d’autre chose ?” = “Can we change topic?” “Bon, parlons d’autre chose.” = “OK, well, let’s speak about something else / let’s change the conversation.” “Bon, on peut en rester là.” = “OK, so, we can close the topic.” “On va en rester là, alors.” = “We’ll close the topic here, then.” “On va en rester là.” = “We’ll close the topic here.” Variations on the expression (all sound like real everyday French with friends) : It’s correct and it doesn’t sound clunky!īut the “nous” imperative, to be honest, is a little bit formal, so you can use “On + futur proche” instead. It sounds much more natural but it’s more about “let’s agree we like different thing” rather than “let’s agree we have different beliefs about the world.”įinally, you could also use “Restons-en là” (= “Let’s stay here” = Let’s not dive further into discussion here, it wouldn’t be worth it). (Maybe because French people just love debates and don’t like to close them peacefully? Maybe because debates naturally end with “Santé !” and a glass of wine? But I’m just riffing here.)Ī direct, grammatically correct translation would be “Disons que l’on est pas d’accord” (= Let’s say we disagree) or “Acceptons notre désaccord (à ce sujet)” (= Let’s accept that we disagree (on this topic)) but they’re quite formal and don’t really roll off the tongue.Ī more colloquial expression would be “Chacun son truc” (= to each its own), with the colloquial “truc” (= thingy). There’s no real direct, common translation for the expression… Short answer : “On peut en rester là, alors.”
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