Normally, the phrase "The adventure begins" uses the third person version of the verb.
Why is it "Let the adventure begin"? It is because this is a special tense?
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1 Answer
Because the form is imperative + bare infinitive and not present simple. Same as in: “Let him go”. You wouldn’t say “Let him goes”. In both sentences, go and begin are bare infinitives, not 3rd person singular of present simple.
Furthermore the adventure is a subject in the example “The adventure begins”, but in the other one “Let the adventure begin” it is an object. This is easier to spot in the example I gave, where the object is him. The form in which a personal pronoun in the 3rd person singular masculine can be an object is “he”, so when you see the word him you know it can’t be the subject of a sentence.
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It sounds a bit strange to say the "subject" in OP's "Let the adventure begin" is an implied you, because semantically it's not normally the addressee who "allows" the adventure to start. But syntactically I guess that must be it, since it is an "imperative" construction. Commented Apr 10, 2015 at 14:36
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Yes, I see your point. What I meant was that this probably caused the confusion in the first place (in the example "The adventure begins" adventure is the object, and in the other one it is not - one might think that adventure should be followed with the same verb form in any case). I'll edit and try to make it clearer. Thanks :-)– LuckyCommented Apr 10, 2015 at 15:17
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Sorry, followed by the same verb form, I don't know what got into me...– LuckyCommented Apr 11, 2015 at 0:43