Here I will give you 12 other ways to ask for help in English.
Don’t say “help me” in English unless you’re really stuck. Learn much better and more polite ways to ask for help in English. Don’t be rude, use much better and more polite phrases to ask for help in English. This will help you sound more like a native speaker.
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12 Other Ways to Ask for Help in English
Harry
Hi there. This is Harry. And welcome back to our English lessons. We’re going to talk to you today about the word ‘help’ and look at different ways in which you can ask for help in English.
But before I get onto that, just want to remind you all to subscribe to my channel as always. And if you want to keep up with the news, then you should join me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com with, there’s lots of helpful information, online English courses and everything that can help you improve your English.
Let’s look at the ways in which we can say or ask for help.
Help is a very short word and we can just say help. Somebody would come running or somebody would say, ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong?’
Just very simply to say Help!
Just put a little bit of stress on it to show that you need some help. Either you’re going to drop something or you’ve tripped or fallen or something like that.
So instead of just screaming out, what other ways to ask for help in English, you can use?
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We can just simply say to somebody:
2️⃣ Can you help me, please?
Very simple. And instead of can, you can replace it with one of the other modal verbs.
Could you help me, please?
Will you help me, please?
Exactly the same meaning, but just different ways to, to express it.
3️⃣ I need some assistance.
A little bit more formal. It could be in an office situation. The boss’s struggling. He said:
I think I need some assistance with this problem or this spreadsheet or my computer.
Something’s happened so I need some assistance.
4️⃣ Could you give me a hand?
It means will you please help me?
This is heavy. Could you give me a hand?
I need to shift the bed so I can hoover, could you give me a hand?
I need to move the TV into the other corner to put the Christmas tree. Could you give me a hand?
So just different ways to ask for help.
12 Other Ways to Ask for Help in English
5️⃣ Could you hold that?
This is another way to express it. You have something that you have in your hands and you want to do something else so you say:
Could you hold that, please?
Meaning could you help me? Just hold that while I work out this other problem or while I pay. Hold my bag or hold my coat or hold something. Could you hold that?
6️⃣ I need your support
Again another way to ask for help. Perhaps there’s a vote coming up and you’re involved in the vote you’re standing for election to a little group or a committee or something more important and you ask somebody for help:
I need your support. Will you vote for me? Will you get your friends to vote for me?
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7️⃣ Would you mind helping me, please?
Again a little bit more formal. It is a bit more polite.
Adding would or could in front of is making it less direct and more polite. Another one is
8️⃣ Could you do me a favour?
Will you do me a favour?
Can you do me a favour? Could you pick up my laundry when you’re going past the shop?
Could you do me a favour asking for somebody to give you a little bit of help?
Something a little less formal and even less informal bit of slang:
9️⃣ Could you give me a digout?
Very British English. To dig out means to help literally when you dig a hole is to take somebody out of a problem.
Could you give me a digout meaning could you help me with this? Often that is used when somebody wants to perhaps borrow some money from you.
1️⃣0️⃣ Could you lend me a hand?
Meaning just help me for a few minutes or 20 minutes or whatever it might be, lend me a hand.
Or you could just simply say without asking a question:
1️⃣1️⃣ I need a helping hand
I need somebody to come into the kitchen and help me with this dinner.
And then finally
1️⃣2️⃣ Could someone help me, please?
So lots and lots of different ways to ask for help in English.
Let me just give them to you again:
- Help – the simple scream for help
- Could/can/will you help me, please?
- I need some assistance
- Could you give me a hand
- Could you lend me a hand
- Could you hold that
- I need your support
- Would you mind helping me?
- Could you do me a favour?
- Could you give me a digout?
- I need a helping hand
- Could someone help me, please
Okay. Join me again soon for more English lessons. Thanks
speak better English with Harry podcast- episode 395
12 Other Ways to Ask for Help in English
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