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let

/let/

allow, permit

Verb forms

Base form

let

/let/

Past Simple

let

/let/

Past Participle

let

/let/

Example sentences

Base form · let

My parents let me stay up late on weekends.

Past Simple · let

She let the cat out before going to bed.
She let without any hesitation.
They let it again the following morning.
He didn't let anything at the meeting.

Past Participle · let

He has let his garden grow wild this year.
I have already let it more than once.
She has just let the very same thing.
By the time we arrived, they had let everything.

Common collocations

let go

to release your hold on something

let down

to disappoint someone

Key tenses

Present Simple	Past Simple	Present Perfect
I let he / she / it lets	I let	I have let
Present Continuous:I am letting · he / she / it is letting

Learn when to use these forms:Past Simple lesson →Present Perfect lesson →

Grammar guide

The verb "let" belongs to the AAA group — all three principal parts are identical: "let" / "let" / "let". The spelling never changes, whether you use it in the present tense, past simple, or as a past participle in a perfect or passive construction.

Use "let" in the present to describe habits, facts, or scheduled events: "We let the figures every quarter." The same form serves as the past simple for completed actions: "They let the budget before noon." With auxiliary verbs it functions as the past participle: "She has already let her quota." Because all three forms look the same, an auxiliary (have, has, had) or a past-time marker (yesterday, last year) provides the tense signal.

AAA verbs are mostly short, high-frequency words ending in -t or -d, such as cost, cut, hit, hurt, let, put, set, and spread. Because they never inflect, you only need to learn one spelling. The difficulty is that context — an auxiliary verb, a time adverb, or the surrounding narrative — must indicate which tense is intended.

Quick-reference rule: when "let" follows have, has, or had, it is acting as a past participle ("she has let the price twice"); when it follows did not or appears in a question with did, it is the infinitive in a past-tense structure ("did they let it correctly?"); in all other uses it is most likely present simple or a base-form infinitive.

Quick quiz

Which sentence is correct?

Conjugation pattern

All three forms are identical — nothing to memorise beyond the base form.

Verbs with the same pattern

set — set — set read — read — read cut — cut — cut fit — fit — fit hit — hit — hit hurt — hurt — hurt