Give someone a hand: asking for and offering help
Ask for help with give someone a hand. Practice requests, offers, task patterns and past forms, and distinguish helping from applauding.
Help: ask for support and say what you can do
Ask for help, offer it, name the person and task, and use help as a verb or a noun in everyday situations.
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Learn
Read the examples, then check each idea as you go.
To help someone is to make a task or situation easier for them. You can help by doing part of a job, explaining something or giving what is needed. Start with who helps, then say who receives the help and what the task is.
Name who makes the task easier
The person before help gives the support. The person after help receives it. Helping does not always mean doing the whole task: you may do one part while the other person does the rest.
Things can help too. A map can make it easier to find a place, and a picture can make an instruction clearer. You can also use help without naming a person when the situation makes that person clear.
Nora helps Ben in the kitchen.
This picture helps.
Use me, him, her, us or them after help
Put the person getting help directly after help. Use a name, a noun such as my friend, or a pronoun such as me, him, her, us or them. Do not put to between help and this person.
I and we name the people doing an action. Me and us name the people getting help. You has the same form in both positions.
Can you help us, please?
I help him after class.
Use with before the task
Use help someone with + a noun to name the task or problem. The person comes before with. The words after with can name work, a form, a bag or another thing that needs attention.
You can leave out the person when it is clear who needs help. Help with dinner describes the task; help my neighbor with dinner also names the person getting help.
Can you help me with this form?
We help with dinner on Sundays.
Name the action with or without to
After help + a person, use the basic action verb. You can also put to before that verb. Both patterns are correct when help means making the action easier.
The order is help + person + action. In this pattern, use carry or to carry rather than carrying. You can add details after the action, such as what to carry or which door to close.
Please help me close the door.
Please help me to close the door.
Ask someone for help
Use can or could to ask another person for help. Name the task so they know what you need. Could makes the request less direct; in this use, it does not refer to the past.
Please can make a request more polite. A short, direct call for help can be appropriate when you urgently need support, but it may sound like an order in an ordinary conversation.
Can you help me find the bus stop, please?
Could you help me with this machine?
Help me!
Offer help and respond to an offer
To offer support, put I before help and the other person after it. To ask for support, put you before help and yourself after it. Changing the people changes who will help.
You can accept an offer with Yes, please and then name the task. No, thank you politely says no to the offer. A question beginning with how asks the other person to explain what help they need.
Can I help you with those bags?
Can you help me with those bags?
Yes, please. Can you carry the small bag?
How can I help?
Use help as the name of the support
After need, ask for or thank you for, help can be a noun. It names the support rather than the action of giving it. For this ordinary meaning, use help or some help, without making it plural.
You can add with + the task to the noun too. Some help with a form is support for completing the form. Your help names support from the person you are speaking to.
I need some help with my phone.
Thank you for your help today.
Change the verb for the person and time
For a present habit, use helps after he, she, it or one name. Use help after I, you, we and they. A thing such as a map also takes helps when it is the singular subject.
Use helped for a completed past action. After can, could or did, return to help without -s or -ed. The other word already gives the question or request its form.
The map helps us find the station.
A neighbor helped us yesterday.
Did your neighbor help you?
Practice
Try the questions in order. Use a hint when you need one, then read the explanation after checking.
Use it in your own words
Write a four-line conversation about a real or imagined task. Ask for help, let the other person say yes or no, name the task using with or an action verb, and finish with a suitable response.
Write in English, then compare your writing with the checklist. This activity uses self-review, so it does not give a score.
Check your writing
Read an example response
Can you help me with this box, please? Yes. What do you need? Please help me carry it to the door. Of course. I can carry this side.
Test
Answer without hints. Your result shows which questions to review; you can change your answers and try again.
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