Deja que el teléfono suene tres veces

[JoseteLuisete]

"Deja que el teléfono suene tres veces."
"Let the telephone ring 3 times."

May I also say ...?
"Let the telephone rings 3 times."

It seems my option is wrong but I don't know why.

No hay contexto porque esta frase es parte de una colección de frases a traducir.
Se podría añadir antes ... "Mi hermano me llama a todas horas. No quiero cogerlo enseguida. Deja que el teléfono suene tres veces".

¡Muchas gracias por adelantado!

 

[sound shift]

The structure is "let" + object + bare infinitive, so "Let the telephone rings three times" is indeed wrong.

 

[The Newt]

I agree with sound shift; "rings" would be wrong. You have an introductory verb which is in the imperative mood; the verb that follows it has to be a (bare) infinitive. Unlike Spanish, where the "que" separates the two clauses, in English it's all one clause.

 

[Saúl Ortega]

That "bare infinitive" Is in fact a subjunctive, as in spanish... But maybe native speakers doesn't think of it as a subjunctive because that is a rare concept and they doesn't have a specific conjugation for it.

However... We can also use the infinitive in spanish: Deja el/al teléfono sonar tres veces. And this is more similar to the english one... So, maybe it's ok that they think of it as an infinitive...

I'm just thinking out loud...

 

[gvergara]

Hi,

That "bare infinitive" Is in fact a subjunctive, as in spanish

I have to disagree here, the structure is to let + object + bare infinitive, the English subjunctive has nothing to do with the structure. And in Spanish, we can also use an infinitive, as you yourself said, and in that case it is and will always be an infinitive, unless you construct a "que-sentence", which does call for th subjuntivo. .

G.