lassen: to leave, to have something done, to allow and to be doable
CEFR B2 · part 2
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
Wenn ich das gewusst hätte: what would have happened and did notRegret and reproach, which is what this form is for. You build it with hätte or wäre…eine Entscheidung treffen: the verb that lives inside the nounThe fixed noun-plus-verb pairs that replace a single verb, and are the hallmark of…What goes in front of the verb, and what changes when you move itThat the first slot in a German sentence is a decision, not an accident. Ich fahre…Das ist zu machen, das hast du zu machen: obligation without a modalTwo constructions that say what the modals say without using them, and they are…doch, mal, ja, eben: the words that do not translateThe particles that do not change what a sentence says but do change how it lands, which…Reading German aloud: ei, ie, z, v, w, chReading any German word aloud, knowing which letters sound different from how they are…The rule, in three lines
One verb with four distinct jobs, told apart by what sits next to it. Ich lasse den Schlüssel zu Hause is leaving something. Ich lasse mir die Haare schneiden is having something done, the commonest use and the one nobody sees coming. Lass mich gehen is allowing. And das lässt sich machen is that can be done, a passive in disguise.
The usual slip. Translating it as «let» every time and reading Ich lasse mein Auto reparieren as «I let my car repair», which says nothing. The signal is the infinitive at the end: if it is there, lassen is not «leave», it is «have done». And the formal slip: in the Perfekt it is lassen, not gelassen — another double infinitive.
Why it catches you out. English splits them into «leave», «have something done», «let» and «can be done». The middle one is the closest: «I'm having my hair cut» is word for word ich lasse mir die Haare schneiden, and spotting that pairing unlocks the whole unit.