让 : Making, Letting, and Getting Friends to Do Things

First, let's address the elephant in the room: these three concepts in Mandarin are all expressed with the word 让ràng.

We know this will feel a little weird, but we promise you, that in real life situations you will only be confused about 10% of the time, so it could be worse. 😂

This is because, though the word used is the same, the contexts we use it in are really different!  Let's better define these three meanings of 让ràng

1. Making someone do/feel something:  "Running makes my knees hurt."

2. Getting someone to do something: "My brother got me to stop smoking cigarettes."

3. Letting someone do something: "I let my son go out last night"

Fortunately, this grammar is really simple: 

A 让ràng B + [action/feeling].

Since this is fairly straightforward, we can go ahead and start looking at some examples and reach a deeper understanding in that way.  

1. Making Someone Feel Something

Zuò yújiā ràng wǒ māmā hěn kāixīn. ——> Doing yoga makes my mom happy.  做瑜伽让我妈妈很开心。

Zuò yùndòng huì ràng nǐ de shēntǐ hěn jiànkāng. ——> Doing exercise will make your body healthy. 做运动会让你的身体很健康。

Dǎ yóuxì ràng tāmen hěn fàngsōng. ——> Playing games makes them feel relaxed. 打游戏让他们很放松。

2. Getting/Making Someone Do Something 

Wǒ māmā zǒng shì ràng wǒ hé tā qù guàngjiē. ——> My mom always gets me to go shopping with her. 我妈妈总是让我和她去逛街。

Wǒ de gēgē ràng wǒ hé tā qù jiànshēn. ——> My older brother got me to go work out with him. 我的哥哥让我和他去健身。

Wǒ de māmā měitiān dōu ràng wǒ wǎnshàng 8 diǎn yǐqián shuìjiào.  ——> My mother makes me go to bed before 8pm everyday. 我的妈妈每天都让我晚上8点以前睡觉。

Wǒ de lǎobǎn ràng wǒ jīntiān 5 diǎn yǐqián zuò wán gōngzuò. ——> My boss makes me finish my job before 5pm. 我的老板让我今天5点以前做完工作。

3. Letting Someone Do Something

Wǒ péngyǒu ràng wǒ yòng tā de shǒujī. ——> My friend let me use his phone. 我朋友让我用他的手机。

Wǒ māmā bù ràng wǒ kàn diànshì. ——> My mother didn't let me watch tv. 我妈妈不让我看电视。

Note: this 让ràng doesn't appear in our reading.