Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi guys,
I just teach the topic "Let's do something'. However, I am confused of its usage. Should i say, "let's go play or let's go playing"?

thank you

SHERRY

"Let's go play." is good. So is "Let's play." "Let's go playing" is not. However, I'm not sure if "Let's go play swing." is acceptable anywhere. "Let's go play chess" or "Let's go play checkers." is fine.

There is also another set of words that fits in the construction:

"Let's go swimming." "Let's go shopping." "Let's go bowling." etc.

I'm sure someone here can come up with a rule .

thanks!
you just pointed out the point i feel coufused. ' let's go play chess.' and 'let's go shopping' are both right. but how can i explain that to my students?

Hi!

Let's go play chess is certainly not BE.

Best wishes
Siân

I'll take a stab at it:

Let's go shopping, let's go swimming, let's go bowling are all specific types of physical recreation. The "go" is part of the verb phrase go shopping and doesn't really mean "go" in the sense of movement or in the sense of "leave right now". There are lots of activity/hobby verbs like these that fit the pattern go + v-ing (See any grammar book like Azar for a list).

Let's go play seems to be a different situation. I think "go" and "play" aren't really part of the same verb phrase. They're two seperate suggestions or commands:
1. Let's go!
2. Let's play!
I think there are some missing words here that are implied. The underlying message is : Let's go (outside/over there/right now) (AND) play.

So, when we say let's go play, we're really just leaving out the "and" between go and play, which is a common thing to do in informal English (at least American English). Think of all the other similar things we say:

Let's go see what Kathleen is doing. (Let's go over there to where Kathleen is so we can what she is doing.)
Could you go move the car? (Could you go outside and then move the car?)
I'm sick of you! Go fly a kite*! (Go and fly a kite)

* Substitute your own vulgar expression, if you prefer

So, it's safe to say we often omit the and between "go" and other verbs. We also do this after "come":
Come eat with me (Come and eat...)

Assuming students can handle the answer (Aren't we in the elementary forum??) I would say that go +v-ing is for recreational activities. When we have two separate actions (go and whatever else) we drop the and in informal conversation. If students are interested and advanced, I might add: We seem to use expressions like let's go play chess when we're talking about an immediate action, perhaps with some urgency, or when we want to imply a sense of movement, leaving one activity or place for another.
Compare:
I want to go help Aaron. (I'm going to stop what I'm doing and leave for the purpose of helping Aaron)
I want to go hiking. (Here I'm just describing a general activity I want to do.)

A related issue comes to mind; We sometimes use and when an infinitive of purpose meaning is implied:
I went and had dinner with my friend. (I went in order to have dinner...)

"Let's go play." is good. So is "Let's play." "Let's go playing" is not. However, I'm not sure if "Let's go play swing." is acceptable anywhere.

Interesting!

I think I've heard let's go play swing or similar things. I think it's just like naming the game you're going to play. The name of the game is "Swing" or "House" or "Dolls" or "Catch".

I wanna play house!
No! I don't wanna play house or dolls. Let's go play catch!
We did that already! Let's go play swing.

The feeling I get is that there may be something more to the game than just swinging on the swings. Maybe the kids talking have this special routine they do with the swings e.g. they pretend one child is a princess and the other is a flying unicorn, the flying unicorn is the one who pushes the swing, the princess imagines she's actually on the unicorn as she soars into the air, etc.. In other words, there's some game with established rules and it's called "swing."