Learn English – Is this sentence correct? “I let you know….”

grammar

Is it correct to say the following?

I let you know that I have sent you a letter.

Or is there a better way to say this sentence? For example:

I inform you that I have sent you a letter.

Best Answer

As others have noted, it seems a very odd construction. Technically, it's grammatically correct, but the context of that statement seems very limited. For example, I could only imagine saying that to describe of a conditional or hypothetical situation. For example:

"We have a procedure in place for this: You send me a request for information. I write you a letter. I let you know that I have sent you a letter. You get the information once you receive my letter."

Aside from that, it doesn't seem to make sense to me to use "I let you know that I have sent you a letter." Any other intended meaning seems to imply a different tense, to properly frame the context of the statement:

"I'm letting you know that I have sent you a letter." (The focus is on the present act of letting "you" know, occurring at this very moment. As RegDwigнt notes, this might be redundant, since the rest of the sentences is already making the informative statement. That being said, it may be an intentional use of overly-formal language, in which you are "officially" making the announcement.)

"I will let you know that I have sent a letter." (Indicating the future act that will happen, after "I" have sent the letter.)

"I let you know that I [had] sent you a letter." (Indicating the past moment when "I" announced the sending of the letter.)

In short, the original statement's "correctness" is very much related to what you're actually trying to communicate with the statement.