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

These being two distinct phrases. Using the definitions found on Wiktionary:

let's see: used as a filled pause to indicating thinking or pondering, but allowing hearer to participate
let me see: used as a filled pause to indicating thinking or pondering, but not inviting hearer to participate

How do I indicate the fact that I'm thinking about something? And how might I imply "if you have an idea/thought, share it" or 'dis'-imply it?

"Let me see" might be translated as дай мне подумать ("allow me to think about that briefly"). Or you could say сейчас подумаю, "hang on, let me think". (In general, using сейчас --often pronounced щас -- with a future perfect verb can produce the meaning "wait just a sec and it'll be done".)

On the other hand, you could say something like Ну, так, значит... ("well, then, okay...") if you simply need some "filler words" to buy time while you organize your thoughts.

If you mean "let us consider (this question/topic/problem) together", I think you could say давай подумаем ("let's think for a bit") or давай подумаем над этим вопросом ("let's think for a bit about this question").

But in any case, подумывать/подумать ("to think for a little while") seems to me like a good translation for the idiom "to see" in this particular context.

Обычно в таких случаях я пишу в чате: хммм...

Awesome, thanks!

Another meaning that I forgot to mention:

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'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?

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?

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").

Thanks a bunch!