Word
Levons-nous et allons au sauna.
Meaning
Let's get up and go to the sauna.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Levons-nous et allons au sauna.
et
and
au
to the / at the (masculine singular)
aller
to go
se lever
to get up
Questions & Answers about Levons-nous et allons au sauna.
Why is there a hyphen and the word nous attached to the end of levons?
This sentence uses the affirmative imperative (command) form of the reflexive verb se lever (to get up). Normally, pronouns come before the verb (like nous nous levons). But in affirmative commands, the pronoun moves to the very end and attaches with a hyphen.
If this is a command, why does it translate to 'Let's get up' instead of telling someone else to get up?
In French, using the nous (we) form of the imperative is exactly how you say 'Let's [do something]'. By including yourselves in the command, levons-nous naturally means 'let's get up' and allons means 'let's go'.
Why doesn't allons have a hyphen and a pronoun attached to it like levons-nous does?
Se lever is a reflexive verb, meaning it needs a reflexive pronoun to show who is receiving the action. Aller (to go) is not a reflexive verb here, so its imperative form (allons) stands entirely on its own without needing a pronoun attached.
Why is it au sauna instead of à le sauna?
The word sauna is a masculine noun. In French, whenever the preposition à (to) meets the masculine definite article le (the), they must contract into au. It is grammatically incorrect to say à le.