Thread: How do you say "Let's see..." or "Let me see..." in Russian?

Originally Posted by daniel2718

Let's say I'm looking in the kitchen for something to eat. I might say, "Let's see... what is there to eat?"
Or I'm looking in a dictionary for a word. I might say, "Let's see....... ah, there it is. To define -- to discover and set forth the meaning of."

I would say:
Посмотрим, что у нас есть покушать!

Originally Posted by daniel2718

I'm noticing that, at least in those two examples, I use the English word looking. I think this is an entirely different meaning, where I'm actually looking for something. Probably, the "let me see" for thoughts is probably idiomatic for "let me look around inside me head for an answer". Thus, that idiomatic-ness wouldn't be translated as "looking" or "видеть-ing". But this meaning, where one is indeed looking at something physical...

How would I say that?

Посмотрим is a good equivalent of "Let's see" in the physical sense.
It can also be used with the meaning of "We will see" when you are not sure about some future events.

Originally Posted by daniel2718

EDIT: And is сейчас really pronounced щас often? In what context? A more colloquial thing or just because the "ей" gets forgotten and "сч" is just a soft husher?

Very often! And in any context. It is just a sort of "relaxed pronunciation" (compare: "meet you" being pronounced as "mee-chue").