EASY ENGLISH CONVERSATION: “Let’s...”, “How about...”, “Why don’t we...?”

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My name is Emma, andtoday I am going to teach

you three easy expressionswe use in everyday

I'm going to teachyou "let's", I will teach

you "how about", andI will also teach you

"why don't we".

So these areimportant expressions.

I'll teach you the grammaras well as how we use them.

So let's get started.

The first one we'regoing to look at is "let's".

We use "let's" when weare making a suggestion.

We are presenting a planor idea to another person.

So my first exampleis "Let's go to the park."

What does this mean?

Well, "let's" means "letus", so it means "we".

"Let us go to the park."

"Let's go to the park."

And it just means my suggestionis we go to the park together.

Now it's reallyimportant that you notice

this little apostrophehere, because without

this apostrophe, "let's"has a different meaning.

I'll explain that in a moment.

My second example is"Let's have lunch at 1pm."

What does this mean?

Well, it means my suggestion or my ideais we should have lunch at 1pm together.

So let's talk aboutthe grammar of "let's".

So when we use "let's",again, it means "let

us", it's followed bythe base form of a verb.

So what does that mean?

Well, the verb doesnot have "ed", it does not

have "ing", it doesnot have a conjugation;

it's just the base form.

So let's look at some examples.

I could say "Let'swatch a movie."

"Watch" is the baseform of the verb "to watch".

I could say "Let's see a show."

"See" is the base formof the verb "to see".

"Let's do art."

"Do" is the base formof the verb "to do".

Or "Let's eat a piece of cake."

And so, again, these areall suggestions on what

you want to do withanother person together.

So can you make anegative sentence with "let's"?

If you add "not", you can make anegative sentence or a negative suggestion.

So for example, "Let's not", andthen you have the base of the verb.

Imagine somebody says to you,"Hey, let's eat 30 hot dogs tonight."

I don't think that's agood idea, so you might

say, "Hmm, let's noteat 30 hot dogs together."

Or maybe somebody says,"Hey, let's go camping tonight."

If you don't like camping, you mightsay, "Let's not go camping tonight.

Let's do somethingelse instead."

Maybe somebody wantsto pull an all-nighter,

stay up all nightstudying English at the

You might say, "Hmm, let's notstudy English all night at the library."

So these are someexamples of how to use "not".

So, again, it follows"let's", and "let's"

stands for "let us",so "Let's not do this."

So very important, manypeople make mistakes with "let's".

Specifically, they confusethese two words, "let's" and "let's".

You might think, "Oh,well, aren't these the same?

They have thesame pronunciation."

That's true, but thedifference is this apostrophe.

"Let's" with no apostrophe means "allow",so I can say, "Oh, my mother lets me cook

turkey at Thanksgiving."

Or, "The kid's parents lethim use his iPad all the time."

So it can mean "allow".

This is different than"let's" with an apostrophe,

which means "let us",which is what we've

just talked about.

It means to give a suggestion.

All right, so let's nowtalk about "how about".

"How about" is another way tomake a suggestion for a plan or idea.

I can say, "How aboutwe learn English together?"

So this means I'm suggestingwe learn English together.

It's my idea or mysuggestion for a plan.

Here's another example.

"How about we watcha movie tonight?"

One thing I can also say about this is thatsometimes in conversation, people will say

So even though when we write it, it's "how'about", you might actually hear a native

speaker say, "How 'bout?

How 'bout we learnEnglish tonight?

How 'bout we watcha movie together?"

So - and they havethe same meaning.

It's just in conversation, somepeople might not pronounce the "a".

So, I have hereanother question.

"Emma, how 'boutyou make a video on..."

So this is a great opportunityto practice "how 'bout".

In the comments, you can give mea suggestion on a topic for a video.

"How 'bout youmake a video on..."

And it can be anytopic, so feel free to write

in the comments belowusing this sentence.

I would love to hearyour suggestions.

So now let's talk aboutthe grammar of "how 'bout".

I love "how 'bout"because it's easy.

It's easy grammar, it's an easyexpression, and we use it all the time.

It's just where we put "how 'bout" at thebeginning of the sentence, and then we have

the subject word.

So remember, a subject means"I", "you", "he", "she", "they", "we".

It could be the person'sname, you know, "my

sister Audra", "mygrandmother", "the President

of the United States",so the subject is a person.

And then we have a verbin the simple present tense.

So let's look atan example of this.

So imagine, you know,there's a party and

we're trying to figureout what food do people

I might say, "How 'boutmy sister brings dessert?"

So, notice we have "how'bout", "my sister" is the subject.

We have here a verb,"bring", and because

it's in the simplepresent tense, I've added

an "s" so it matches"my sister", it matches

the subject, and then Ihave the word "dessert".

If I hide "how 'bout", you'llsee "my sister brings dessert".

That's like its own sentence.

That's an example of this.

Even if we look at theprevious examples, we

have "how 'bout", "we",which is the subject,

"watch", which is theverb in the simple present

tense, and then "amovie tonight", or "how

'bout you", which isthe subject, and then we

have the verb here,"make", which is, again,

in the simple present tense.

So, you might wonder, can we makea negative sentence using "how 'bout"?

We can say, "How 'bout my sisterdoesn't come to the party tonight?"

"How 'bout we don'tlearn English today?"

No, I want to learn English,or I want to teach English.

But yeah, you can make anegative sentence as well.

You just do the exact same thing you woulddo in a simple present tense sentence.

So, you would use "don't" or"doesn't" depending on the subject word.

So, we've talked about "let's",we've talked about "how 'bout".

The last expression we're goingto learn today is "why don't we".

"Why don't we" is anice, easy expression.

It means the exactsame thing as "let's".

So, you can say, "Why don't we", "let's",they have almost the same meaning.

So, we use these wordsto suggest a plan or idea.

So, for example, I can say,"Why don't we hang out tomorrow?"

This means let'shang out tomorrow.

It's a way for meto suggest an idea.

Now, some students getconfused because they

see this word "don't"and they think, "Oh,

'don't', that's negative.

This must be anegative question."

Well, if it makes iteasier, just remember

"why don't we" has thesame meaning as "let's",

so you use it the same way.

So, don't worry about the "don't", "whydon't we" is a way to give a suggestion.

Here's another example.

"Why don't we go to anIRonniean restaurant?"

So this is something Ioften say to my friends

when we're talkingabout what kind of food

do you want to eat tonight?

What restaurant should we go to?

I usually suggest Persian food.

I think Persian foodis delicious, so usually

with my friends I say,"Why don't we go to

a Persian restauranttonight?" or "Why don't

we go to an IRonnieanrestaurant tonight?"

And again, that means I'm givingthe suggestion, "Let's do this.

Let's go to a Persianrestaurant tonight."

So let's look at the grammar.

"Why don't we" is at the beginning,then we have the base form of the verb.

So for example, "Why don't we", and then wehave the verb "to hang out", the base form

is "hang out", so "Whydon't we hang out?"

"Why don't we go","go" is the base form of

the verb "to go", "Whydon't we go to a Persian

"Why don't we studyEnglish?", "Why don't we

go camping?", "Whydon't we watch a movie?"

So these are all examplesof "Why don't we".

"Why don't we eat later today?"

This has the same meaningas "Let's eat later today."

And this very similargrammar, so if you look,

"Let's eat later today","Why don't we eat

The structures are the same.

So we've covered "let's","how about", "why don't we".

How about you checkout www.engvid.com and

take a quiz to practicewhat you learned today?

I have a lot moreexamples, and the best way

to learn something isto practice and repeat,

so it's a good way topractice what you learned.

Also, don't forget tosubscribe to my channel.

I have a lot of other videoson grammar, pronunciation,

Canadian culture,listening, and so much more.

So thank you so muchfor watching, and don't

forget to write in thecomments what kind

of suggestion you have forme when it comes to a lesson.

You can write "How about you teach a lessonon" or "How about you make a video on", and

you can give a topic.

I can't wait to hearyour suggestions on this.

So thank you so much for watching,and until next time, take care.