させてくださいplease let me (do)
させてください is "please let me": you want to do something, and you ask the other person to allow it. It is also how you offer to take something on.
Please let me leave a little early today.
Please give me a little time to think.
How to form it
Verb in the causative て-form + ください
Ichidan verbs (る-verbs) change る to させて. Godan verbs (う-verbs) move the last sound to the あ-row and add せて. Among friends ください drops: やらせて.
| Verb | Please let me | |
|---|---|---|
| ichidan | 考える | 考えさせてください |
| godan | 帰る | 帰らせてください |
| godan | 休む | 休ませてください |
| godan (う → わ) | 言う | 言わせてください |
| irregular | する | させてください |
| irregular | 来る | 来させてください |
A godan verb takes せて, not させて: 帰らせて, not 帰らさせて.
Who does it?
てください asks the other person to do it. させてください asks them to let you do it.
私に makes it clear you mean yourself.
Please let me investigate this issue.
Asking to be allowed
Leaving early, a day off, a photo, another try: things you need someone's go-ahead for.
Please let me take a photo here.
I'm sorry, I have a fever, so please let me take today off.
Please let me try it one more time.
考えさせてください buys you time. In a shop or to a salesperson it is also a gentle way of not saying yes.
Please let me think about it overnight.
Offering to do it
The same words make a keen offer, or announce politely what you are about to do. Nobody is really being asked for permission.
Please let me pay for this.
Please let me help with something.
Please allow me to introduce myself first.
させてください or てもいいですか?
May I use this room?
A question: you are checking that it is allowed.
Please let me use this room.
A request: you want to, and you expect a yes.
How polite is it?
It is polite, and fine at work for routine things. For a real favor, people turn it into a question the other person can refuse: させていただけませんか.
Could I possibly take a day off next week?
Please let me say just one final thing.
Polite, and firm: you mean to say it.
"Let me" that isn't させて
English "let me know" asks the other person to tell you, so it is 教えてください. And a light offer like "let me carry that" is usually ましょうか.
Please let me know which day suits you.
Shall I carry your bag?
Close neighbours
By itself, させる is "make" or "let" someone do something.
My mother made my little brother eat his vegetables.
させていただくN3
Announces what you are going to do, as if you had been allowed. Shops and companies say it all the time.
We are closed today.
Check yourself
1Who is going to do the job?
その
Choose an answer to see why.
2"Please let me wait here."
ここで
Choose an answer to see why.
3You would like to use your teacher's own dictionary for a day. Which one leaves her free to say no?
Choose an answer to see why.
More detail
With friends: させて
Let me think for a second.
Let me give it a try too.
見せてください, 知らせてください
見せる, to show, and 知らせる, to let someone know, are verbs in their own right: the other person acts.
Please show me the menu.
For someone else
With another person named, you are asking for them.
Please let my son give it a try too.
More sentences
Please let me review this document.
Please, let me be the one to go.