HELP Basic Verbs Learn English Grammar

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Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha.

Welcome back to Know Your Verbs.

In this lesson, we’re going to talk about
the verb, “help.”

The basic definition of the verb, “help”
is to assist or to aid.

Let’s look at the conjugations of this verb.

Present tense, “help,” “helps.”

Past tense, “helped.”

Past participle tense, “helped.”

Progressive tense, “helping.”

Now, let’s talk about some additional meanings
of this verb.

The first additional meaning, to make something
nicer or to make something more pleasant,

to make an experience better somehow.

Examples of this.

“Ah, that massage really helped my back
ache.”

Another example, “I think it’ll help if
you restart your computer.”

In each of these sentences, we used the verb,
“help” to show that something, some situation

or some behavior caused another situation
to become better or improved, more pleasant.

In the first example, a massage improved my
back, so it really helped my back ache means

my back ache became more bearable, it’s not
so bad now.

In the second example sentence, the speaker
thinks that maybe restarting the computer

will improve the computer’s performance, will
make the performance better so we use “help”

in this way.

The second meaning is to avoid something.

Let’s look at some examples.

“I’m sorry you fell down.

I can’t help laughing.”

“I can’t help laughing,” means I can’t
avoid laughing, it’s just not possible.

I can’t avoid laughing, it just comes out.

“I can’t help laughing.”

Another example, “I can’t help wondering
what’s the company going to do next.”

I can’t avoid wondering, I can’t to stop myself
from wondering what is the company going to

do next.

The third meaning of this verb is to serve,
as in to serve food or drink.

Let’s first look at some examples of this
and then we’ll explain.

“Please help yourself to anything you’d
like.”

“Guests may help themselves at the buffet.”

With this meaning of “help,” it means
to serve.

We often use, “Guests may serve themselves,”
guests may help themselves, we use help themselves,

as in assist yourself in getting food or aid
yourself in getting food.

In other words, some one else is not going
to do it for you so please help yourself,

guests may help themselves to food.

It means serve yourself.

It’s typically used in that way.

“Help yourself.”

Guests may serve themselves.

Alright, the fourth meaning for this lesson
is to take but without permission.

So, taking something without permission.

Let’s look at the examples first.

“I’ll just help myself to this jar of cookies.”

“She helped herself to all the money in
her mother’s wallet.”

Here, we kind of see it as we’re assisting
ourselves or were aiding ourselves as opposed

as in the previous example with food and drink.

However, in this case, it means to do those
things without permission.

When using it to refer to like serving food
or drink, there’s permission to do that, “Help

yourself,” that’s permission to take food
and to take a drink.

With this meaning of “help,” however,
it means there’s no permission so it’s often

used with a reflexive pronoun.

“She helped herself,” “He helped himself
to something.”

This is a small grammar point here actually.

The subject of the sentence and the receiver
of the effect of the action are the same person.

So, “She helped herself,” so “helped”
is used reflexively here.

“She,” the subject of the sentence, the
person doing the action is also the receiver

of the action.

“She helped herself to the money in her
mother’s wallet.”

You’ll also see, “She helped herself to,”
“to” is used before the noun phrase here.

“She helped herself to the money in her
mother’s wallet,” or, “all the money in

her mother’s wallet.”

In the first example sentence, “I’ll just
help myself to this jar of cookies.”

We used “to” before the noun or the noun
phrase that we are taking or using without

permission.

Let’s continue on to some variations of the
verb, “help.”

The first one is “so help me,” or “so
help me God” is often used.

“So help me God.”

We use this expression to mean believe it
or not, I’ll do something or something is

going to happen.

Some examples of this, “So help me God,
I am gonna get that job.”

So, believe it or not, I am gonna get that
job.

Like, with everything in my power, whether
you believe me or not, I’m going to get that

job.

It’s a confident expression.

Another one, “I am gonna open my own restaurant,
so help me God.”

Whether you believe or not, this is my plan,
I’m going to do this.

This is my intention.

We started talking about the next variation
a little bit.

When I said, the word, “help” can be used
to mean avoid, I said, “I can’t help laughing,”

“I can’t help wondering.”

There’s a variation of this one which is “can’t
help but,” “can’t help but, verb.”

We use “can’t help but” to also mean avoid.

“Can’t help but” means cannot avoid or
cannot refrain from, cannot stop from doing

something.

Examples of this.

“I can’t help but cry when I see this movie.”

“He can’t help but dance when he hears that
song.”

In these example sentences, it’s not possible
not to do that action.

It’s not possible not to verb.

“I can’t help but cry,” means I can’t
avoid crying, in other words.

We can use the pattern introduced earlier
in this episode, “I can’t help crying when

I watch this movie.”

Both are fine to use, just note the grammar
is a little different.

“I can’t help but cry,” or, “I can’t
help crying.”

In another example sentence, “He can’t help
but dance,” “He can’t help dancing.”

The grammar changes a little bit but the basic
meaning remains the same.

Actually, both of these sentences are correct
and they maintain the same meaning so it’s

up to you to decide which you want to use.

Alright.

I hope that helps you understand the word,
“help” a little more.

If there are any other variations or any other
meanings you know of, please feel free to

let us know in the comments, along with any
example sentences or any questions you might

have.

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Thanks very much for watching this episode
of Know Your Verbs and I’ll see you again

soon. Bye.