Wir lassen das Glas nicht fallen.

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Breakdown of Wir lassen das Glas nicht fallen.

• nicht: not
• das Glas: the glass
• fallen lassen: to let drop

Questions & Answers about Wir lassen das Glas nicht fallen.

Why are there two verbs, lassen and fallen? Why not just one verb for “to drop”?

German often uses lassen + infinitive to mean “let / cause something to do something.”

• lassen = “to let / to allow / to cause”
• fallen = “to fall”

So wir lassen das Glas nicht fallen is literally “we do not let the glass fall,” which corresponds to English “we don’t drop the glass.”

Other similar examples:

• Wir lassen das Auto reparieren. – We’re having the car repaired. (We let/cause the car be repaired.)
• Ich lasse ihn sprechen. – I let him speak.

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Why can’t I say Wir fallen das Glas nicht?

Because fallen in German is intransitive: something falls by itself. It cannot directly take an object.

• Correct: Das Glas fällt. – The glass falls.
• Incorrect: Wir fallen das Glas. – This tries to make “fall” into a transitive verb, which German does not allow.

To express that we cause the glass to fall, German needs lassen:

• Wir lassen das Glas fallen. – We drop the glass.
  With negation:
• Wir lassen das Glas nicht fallen. – We don’t drop the glass.

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Why is fallen at the very end of the sentence?