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I had the same question in Spanish SE and since I've heard that Spanish and Portuguese are closely related sister languages but they may differ in details

I decided to ask it here, too. Then:

I wanna translate the following into Portuguese.

Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's all press "commit" button!

I've been searching around for a while but seems that there is no equivalent for let's in Portuguese.
Some special cases like let's go, let's make it happen, let's make love have been asked on other forums but seems there is no special grammar like in English?

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The answer for the question is: "Vamos"

english == Let's make a website for remote sensing and photogrammetry real. Let's all press "commit" button!

Portuguese == Vamos fazer um site de sensoriamento e fotogrametria remota. Todo mundo apertando o botão "Commit"!

let's go == Vamos lá

let's make it happen == Vamos fazer com que aconteça

let's make love == Vamos fazer amor

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  • this is absolutely it! Something additional to note with vamos is that, if the context is clear, you can use "vamos!" on its own. I often notice my brazilian friends say "let's!" on it's own instead of "let's go" or "let's eat" for example, because you can do that in Portuguese. I suppose the closest example in English would be "shall we?", but that sounds very stilted.
    – Some_Guy
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 11:50
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    other note. In spoken portuguese brazilians seem to drop the final S of vamos a lot, and say "vamo"
    – Some_Guy
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 11:51
  • @Some_Guy, "Vamos" is used by itself in some phrases because it is actually the verb "ir" (to go) and we don't have a word that is simmilar to "let's" (by itself)..... It is like if brazillians said "let's go do that" instead of "let's do that"
    – dgimenes
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:46
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Like in Spanish, in European Portuguese we say «vamos» to the meaning of «let's»

Vamos fazer um website... Vamos todos clicar em "commit"

And the other examples:

vamos lá!

vamos fazer com que aconteça!

vamos fazer amor!

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Literal or literate translation

Let's go, for example, it is a contraction for let us go. In this sense the literal translation in Portuguese is simply:

  • Deixemo-nos ir

Though, no-one would say that in the daily life, but that is strictly the exact translation.

Therefore the literate translations for

let's go

let's make it happen

let's make love

might be, considering you can use the imperative tense in the second person of the plural form (the one that corresponds to we):

deixemo-nos ir

deixemos que aconteça

façamos amor

Simple translation

As other have said, the common translation for let's go might be simply:

  • Vamos
  • Vamos lá
  • Bora lá (slang)

Pay attention that this verb tense vamos is not conjugated in the simple present form, but in the imperative form.

Hence the simple translations for those three expressions might be:

vamos

vamos fazê-lo

vamos fazer amor

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  • Essa ideia de fazer a tradução literal foi muito boa, para dar uma ideia de onde vem a expressão.
    – Jorge B. ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 11:17
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As the other guys said, basically "vamos" is the equivalent to "Let's", i'd just like to add that, for the "commit" (in the IT context), there's an portuguese non-official verb which is "commitar", so you can say, vamos todos commitar (do commit).

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  • But only on Brazilian Portuguese, in Portugal we say «vamos fazer commit».
    – Jorge B. ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 8:33
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    Good catch, @JorgeB. we also use that expression sometimes in Brazil!
    – Pedro Celso
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 23:31

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