A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
Er hat mich nie allein gelassen.
He never left me alone.
ii. lassen + (an infinitive) – to let, to allow
Er läßt ihn gehen.
He lets him go.
Er hat ihn gehen lassen.
He (has) let him go.
In this case, a dependent infinitive is used and in the perfect tenses a
double infinitive, just as with the modal verbs.
c. lassen + (an infinitive) – to have something done.
Wir lassen ein Haus bauen.
We are having a house built.
Wir haben unser Auto reparieren lassen.
We have had our car repaired.
Again, you see a dependent infinitive, with a double infinitive in the perfect
tenses. Note that there is no visible difference between usage 1.b.ii above and
this usage. Now that you are aware of both possible meanings for this
construction, you can rely on real-world sense-making to decide which
meaning is intended.
d. sich lassen + (an infinitive) – as a substitute for the passive voice (compare
Unit 9). More specifically, this usage is exactly equivalent to (and is preferred
over) a combination of the modal verb können with passive voice. It might help
you to think about how this usage of lassen is similar to 1-b-ii above:
something “lets itself be done.”
Dieses Wort läßt sich nicht leicht übersetzen.
Dieses Wort kann nicht leicht übersetzt werden.
This word cannot be translated easily.
Das Fenster läßt sich öffnen.
Das Fenster kann geöffnet werden.
The window can be opened.