Lass uns heute den Kofferraum aufräumen, bevor wir einkaufen gehen.

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Breakdown of Lass uns heute den Kofferraum aufräumen, bevor wir einkaufen gehen.

• heute: today
• einkaufen gehen: to go shopping
• bevor: before

Questions & Answers about Lass uns heute den Kofferraum aufräumen, bevor wir einkaufen gehen.

What does lass uns mean, and why is lass used instead of lasst or lassen wir?

lass uns literally means “let us,” i.e. English “let’s.” It comes from the du-imperative of the verb lassen (lass) plus the pronoun uns. In everyday informal German you say lass uns (singular “you let us”) or, if you’re addressing a group directly, lasst uns (ihr-imperative). The form lassen wir is the formal 1st-person-plural imperative (“let us”) but is quite rare in spoken German.

Why is lass at the very beginning of the sentence?

Because it’s an imperative. In German imperatives the finite verb comes first. So lass (the command form of lassen) leads the clause.

Why is heute placed before den Kofferraum, and could we move it elsewhere?

heute is a time adverb and normally sits in the “time” slot of the middle field. Here it appears before the object (den Kofferraum), but you could also say Lass uns den Kofferraum heute aufräumen with no change in meaning. German allows some flexibility in adverb placement as long as the imperative verb stays first.

Why do we say den Kofferraum and not der or dem?