Dear German learners,

I thought to explain here a little bit about some of the many applications in which the infamous verb lassen is used in German:

We are all familirar with phrases like:

lass mich in Ruhe! = leave me alone!
or
es wird schon kalt, lass uns ins Haus gehen = it's getting cold, let's go inside.

But there are some other applications in which, at least for me, need more practice to get used to. I explain two of them here:

1) lassen can be used to signal capacity, ability or possiblity of something.

hier lässt es sich gut leben.
= it's a good life here!, one can live well here! (it's possible to live well here)

es lässt sich damit Geld verdienen!
= it's an opportunity to earn money! (it's possible to earn money with that)

if the door won't open, ...
= wenn sich dir Tür nicht öffnen lässt, ...

die Tür lässt sich jetzt viel leichter öffnen!
= the door opens much more easily now.

that won't be easy to solve!
= das lässt sich nicht leicht lösen!

2) Another usage of the verb lassen that I would like to explain a bit is the equivalent of have sth done and have sb do sth:

she got her hair cut! = sie hat sich die Haare schneiden lassen!

I'm having him wash my car! = ich lasse ihn mein Auto waschen.

I hope this helps a bit! Keep up the good work!

Best,
Heschmat