Phrasal Verbs HELP vs HELP OUT Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question comes from Karima

heigen Karima karema says hi Alicia

could you please tell me which one of

these is correct if I want to emphasize

an action in the past I did speak to him

or I did spoke to him thanks yes the

correct answer here is did speak so when

we’re using the verb do for emphasis we

use do and then we use the simple

present tense form of the verb that

follows it so the verb coming after it

in this case speak should not change so

your second example I did spoke that

would be incorrect we don’t change that

second verb we only change the verb do

so did in this case let’s look at some

more examples she doesn’t have time to

meet you I saw her schedule she does

have time so that’s a present tense

example do in this case changes to does

because the subject of the sentence is

she she does have time

so does emphasizes the fact that she in

the situation has time to meet with the

speaker let’s look at one more example

he didn’t give us a key to enter the

building

but he did give us a passcode okay so

here we’re seeing a past tense example

in this case did give did is past tense

and give is simple present tense so the

speaker here wants to emphasize

something that they received speaker a

says he didn’t give us a key to enter

the building

but speaker B wants to point out they

got something else the speaker wants to

say he did give us something else

emphasizing this other thing that was

given so we can use do or did for past

tense to emphasize things in this way

and you’ll also notice as I did with my

intonation will kind of emphasize that

key word with our voice too so that

makes it sound much more natural

I hope that this helps answer your

question about using do as an emphasis

word thanks very much for sending it

along okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Reuben

hi Reuben Reuben says what’s the

difference between help and help out

okay

let’s start by talking about help out we

use help out when we want to refer to

one person doing something for another

person to make life easier so it’s like

someone is assisting or aiding in

someone else’s life and we can only use

help out to talk about actions done by

other people so this is a key difference

with the verb help so because this is

used only to talk about people we can’t

use it for objects that means an object

cannot help out so like an object cannot

help me out with something let’s look at

some natural examples of using help out

my parents helped me out with the

paperwork when I bought my first car do

you think you can help us out with this

week’s homework so in both of these

examples sentences we see the sample

pattern help out with noun phrase so in

this case we’ve seen like help me out

with or help us out with so between help

and out we’re splitting that verb the

phrasal verb there and we’re inserting

the object so like who is receiving the

assistance in that case in the first

example sentence help me out with this

thing help me out with paperwork in the

second example sentence it’s helped us

out with homework so the person

receiving help is going in between help

and out there so help someone out with

so with introduces that thing the person

needs assistance doing let’s compare

this then to the verb help

so like help out we can use help to talk

about receiving assistance for something

yes but unlike help out we can also use

objects with this firm so that means an

in and

it’s something so inanimate means it

doesn’t move it’s just an object like a

textbook or like a camera these are

things that are not people so these

things can also help us and by that I

mean they make our life easier they make

our job easier or our studies easier we

can use objects with the verb help let’s

look at a few examples this textbook

really helped me understand English my

friends helped me move into my new house

can you help us make dinner so when we

use the verb help without out we follow

the verb help with the object of that

verb so that means the person who is

receiving assistance the person

receiving aid then we follow that with

the action so the thing that was

assisted or like the thing that was made

easier for that person so in the first

example sentence this textbook helped me

the person receiving help understand

English so that’s the thing that was

made easier in some way in the last

example sentence a question can you help

us make dinner so us that’s the person

or the people in this case needing

assistance and the thing they need

assistance with is dinner so to help

with something so remember you can use

help out for people but you can’t use it

to talk about things we can use help to

talk about people and to talk about

things so I hope that this helps you

understand the difference between these

verbs thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from Michael hi

Michael Michael says hi Alicia could you

please explain the expression very next

day what’s the difference between this

and next day yeah we use the word very

as an emphasis word before nouns let’s

look at a couple more examples oh it’s

you the very person I wanted to see last

Christmas I gave you my heart and the

very next day you gave it away this

program keeps crashing this is the very

problem I’ve been having

ok so very is you

used in these ways to show emphasis for

the noun that follows it so in my first

example sentence I said oh you’re the

very person I’ve been looking for or the

very person I’ve been wanting to see

that means like you are exactly you are

just the person I wanted to see in the

second example a lyric from a well-known

Christmas song the very next day like

the speaker is emphasizing right away

like just the next day after this thing

that happened in the third example

sentence it’s like saying just or

exactly again like that’s just the

problem I’ve been having that’s the very

problem I’ve been having so very can

sound a little bit formal a little bit

on the formal side but if you want to

emphasize like a person or a time period

in this way using very you can do that

very simply with this word so it doesn’t

just mean very as in like extremely or a

lot of something it can also have just

this emphasis word like exactly or truly

or really so I hope that this helps you

understand this use of very thanks very

much for the question ok let’s move on

to your next question next question

comes from Rafael Santana hi Rafael

Rafael says hello could you please

explain do fine and to make do Thanks ok

so let’s start with do fine we use do

fine most commonly in the progressive

tense and it’s usually to respond to the

question how are you doing I’m doing

fine so we typically don’t say like

please do fine or are you doing fine we

don’t really use it in questions or to

talk about ourselves in any other way