〜させてください

〜させてください combines the causative with 〜てください to make a humble request for permission: 帰らせてください literally means "please let me go home," i.e. "please allow me to leave." The speaker places themselves low and asks the listener to "permit" them — which makes this pattern a great fit with superiors and teachers.

Compared with 〜てもいいですか from N5 — which merely asks whether something is OK — 〜させてください is more proactive and earnest: you genuinely want to do the thing. The sentence 考えさせてください (please let me think it over) is also a tactful refusal, very handy in sales and negotiations.

To be even more polite, change ください to いただけませんか: 早く帰らせていただけませんか (might I possibly be allowed to leave early?) — combining it with the request pattern from the giving–receiving chapter.

Examples

• すみません、今日(きょう)は早(はや)く帰(かえ)らせてください。

  Excuse me, please let me go home early today.

• その仕事(しごと)は私(わたし)にやらせてください。

  Please let me handle that job.

• 少(すこ)し考(かんが)えさせてください。

  Please let me think it over a little.

Related patterns

• 使役形（〜させる）
• 〜ていただけませんか