A normal imperative — Kom!, Wacht! — commands someone else. But often you want to rally a group that includes yourself: "Let's go," "Let's get started," "Come on, we're leaving." English does this with one little word, let's. Dutch has a small family of forms for it, and the trap for English speakers is picking the wrong one — or, worse, calquing let literally. The standard, everyday solution is laten we + infinitive. Around it sit a colloquial bare hortative (Kom, we gaan), a rallying interjection (Kom op!), and a regionally and stylistically marked variant (Laat ons) that you must learn to recognise but should rarely produce. This page sorts them out and tells you which to use when.
Laten we + infinitive — the standard "let's"
The workhorse form is laten we + an infinitive at the end of the clause. Literally it is "let us" + verb, but it has fused into a single hortative construction: laten we behaves like an auxiliary, so the infinitive it governs closes the verb bracket, exactly the way a modal's infinitive does (Ik wil gaan → Laten we gaan).
Laten we beginnen, iedereen is er.
Let's begin, everyone's here. — the infinitive 'beginnen' closes the clause.
Laten we naar huis gaan, ik ben kapot.
Let's go home, I'm wrecked. — 'gaan' goes to the end; 'laten we' leads like an auxiliary.
Laten we het er niet meer over hebben.
Let's not talk about it anymore. — negation sits inside; 'hebben' closes the bracket.
Note the shape: laten is the infinitive of laten ("to let"), and we is the ordinary subject pronoun. So laten we gaan parses as "let-us go." Because the construction is fixed, laten never changes — it does not become laat and does not agree with anything. The verb that does the real work (beginnen, gaan, hebben) sits at the very end as a plain infinitive.
The bare we-hortative: Kom, we gaan
In casual speech, Dutch often skips the laten we frame entirely and just states a plain present-tense we-clause, sometimes prefaced by a rallying Kom or Kom op. This is the most conversational "let's" of all — a flat declarative that functions as a group nudge.
Kom, we gaan.
Come on, let's go. — a bare 'we gaan' does the work of 'let's go'.
We beginnen, anders worden we nooit klaar.
Let's get going, otherwise we'll never finish. — present-tense 'we beginnen' read as a hortative.
Vooruit, we pakken even door.
Come on, let's push on a bit. — 'vooruit' rallies; 'we pakken door' is the action.
This bare form is not a separate grammatical mood — it is just the ordinary present tense doing duty as a suggestion, much as English "We're leaving" can mean "let's leave" with the right intonation. It feels brisker and more spontaneous than laten we, which is a touch more deliberate. Both are completely standard; the bare form simply lives further down the formality scale.
Kom op and other rallying calls
Kom op is not a "let's" construction at all — it is an interjection, the direct counterpart of English "come on." It urges, encourages, or chivvies, and it often introduces a we-hortative rather than standing alone. Keep it separate in your mind from laten we: Kom op energises, laten we proposes.
Kom op, we kunnen dit!
Come on, we can do this! — pure encouragement, then a 'we'-clause.
Kom op nou, zo erg is het niet.
Oh come on, it's not that bad. — 'kom op nou' as mild protest.
Vooruit met de geit, laten we aan de slag gaan.
Let's get cracking — onwards! — a set rallying phrase ('on with the goat') feeding a 'laten we' clause.
Related rallying words include vooruit ("come on / onwards"), toe ("go on / please," coaxing), and hup (a sporting cheer, "go!"). None of them conjugate; they are spoken sparks that set up the actual hortative clause.
Laat ons — the Flemish and solemn variant
Here is the distinction English speakers most need. Alongside laten we, Dutch has laat ons + infinitive — literally "let us," with laat in the singular imperative and ons as the object pronoun. In the standard Northern (Netherlands) language, this is not the everyday "let's." It survives in two narrow registers:
- (literary / solemn) — elevated, liturgical, or oratorical Dutch: Laat ons bidden ("Let us pray"), Laat ons hopen dat... ("Let us hope that...").
- (regional: Flanders) — in Belgian Dutch, laat ons is far more ordinary and is the default colloquial "let's" for many speakers, where a Northern speaker would say laten we.
Laat ons bidden.
Let us pray. (formal / liturgical — the fixed solemn form)
Laat ons hopen dat het droog blijft.
Let us hope it stays dry. (literary / elevated register)
Laat ons maar vertrekken, het is al laat.
Let's just head off, it's getting late. (regional: Flanders — everyday Belgian usage where the North says 'laten we')
So the rule of thumb for a learner aiming at standard Northern Dutch: produce laten we, recognise laat ons. If you say laat ons vertrekken to a friend in Amsterdam, you will be understood, but you will sound either ceremonious or audibly Flemish. The reverse also holds: a Fleming saying laten we sounds slightly Northern or bookish. This is one of the cleanest North–South tells in the verb system — see Flemish verb and syntax features for the broader pattern.
Why English speakers stumble here
English let's is a frozen contraction of let us, and that fossil misleads learners twice. First, because let us is visibly "let" + "us," English speakers reach for the literal laat ons — which exists, but is the wrong register for everyday Northern speech. Second, English let is a causative ("let me go" = "allow me to go"), and Dutch laten is the same causative verb (see the causative laten) — so learners expect laten to behave like a normal causative and get confused when it freezes into a hortative frame with we. The cleanest way to internalise it is to treat laten we as a single unit meaning "let's," not as a live "let" + "us" you assemble word by word. Store laten we the way you store English let's — as one indivisible signal that a group suggestion is coming, with the real verb arriving as an infinitive at the end.
Negation and the first-person plural
To say "let's not," slot the negator into the middle field, exactly as in any clause; the infinitive still closes the bracket.
Laten we niet te lang wachten.
Let's not wait too long. — 'niet' in the middle, 'wachten' at the end.
Laten we het maar gewoon proberen.
Let's just give it a try. — softening 'maar' and 'gewoon' stack in the middle field.
And because laten we is doing hortative duty, it pairs naturally with the same softening particles (maar, even, nou) that take the edge off ordinary commands: Laten we even gaan zitten ("Let's sit down for a sec") feels gentler than the bare Laten we gaan zitten.
Common Mistakes
❌ Laat we gaan.
Incorrect — the standard 'let's' is 'laten we', not 'laat we'. 'Laat' goes only with 'ons'.
✅ Laten we gaan.
Let's go.
❌ Laat ons pizza bestellen. (to Dutch friends, casually)
Wrong register in the North — 'laat ons' is Flemish or solemn here; it sounds grandiose to a Netherlands speaker.
✅ Laten we pizza bestellen.
Let's order pizza. — the everyday Northern form. ('Laat ons' is fine in Flanders.)
❌ Laten we te gaan.
Incorrect — no 'te' before the infinitive; 'laten we' takes a bare infinitive.
✅ Laten we gaan.
Let's go.
❌ Laten we gaan naar huis.
Incorrect word order — the infinitive 'gaan' must close the bracket, after the rest of the clause.
✅ Laten we naar huis gaan.
Let's go home. — 'naar huis' in the middle, 'gaan' last.
❌ Lets gaan! / Let ons gaan!
Incorrect — there's no Dutch 'lets'; don't transliterate English 'let's'. Use 'laten we' (or 'kom, we gaan').
✅ Kom, we gaan! / Laten we gaan!
Come on, let's go! — the bare hortative or the standard 'laten we'.
Key Takeaways
- The standard "let's" is laten we + infinitive, with the infinitive at the end: Laten we beginnen.
- laten is frozen — it never becomes laat and never agrees; treat laten we as one unit meaning "let's."
- The bare we-hortative (Kom, we gaan) is the most casual "let's" — just the present tense used as a suggestion.
- Kom op / vooruit / toe are rallying interjections, not "let's" constructions; they set up a we-clause.
- Laat ons is (literary/solemn) in the North (Laat ons bidden) and (regional: Flanders) for everyday "let's" — produce laten we, recognise laat ons.
- Negate and soften in the middle field: Laten we niet te lang wachten, Laten we even gaan zitten.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- The ImperativeA1 — How Dutch gives commands, instructions, and invitations: the bare stem does the work, the polite u-form adds a verb, separable verbs split, and 'let's' is laten we.
- Softer Alternatives to the ImperativeB1 — How Dutch avoids the blunt imperative — modal questions, softening particles, je-statements, and the infinitive on signs and recipes — to give instructions without sounding rude.
- Causative Laten (and Doen)B2 — How laten + infinitive collapses English let, make, and have-something-done into a single verb, plus the literary doen-causative and the double-infinitive perfect.
- Flemish Verb and Syntax FeaturesC1 — Belgian Dutch and its informal register tussentaal carry distinctive syntax — gendered indefinite articles (ne/nen), doubled subordinators (wie dat), subject-pronoun doubling, the gaan-future and a strong green word order — none of which belong to Netherlands Standard Dutch.
- Ordering Verbs in the Final ClusterB2 — When two or more verbs pile up at the end of a subordinate clause, the order among them can vary — the famous 'red' and 'green' word orders — and with three verbs the infinitivus-pro-participio rule kicks in.