Learn 10 ways to ask for help
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
| Hi, everybody and welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha and today we're going to be talking about “10 Ways to Ask for Help.” Help me. Help me ask for help. Let's go. |
| “Can you…?” “Can you…” blah, blah, blah. So “Can you give me that pen?” “Can you turn off the fan?” “Can you give me a sandwich for lunch? I forgot mine.” In this sentence, “Can you send me your email address?” So, very simple requests you can use, “Can you…” blah, blah, blah with them. |
| “Could you give me a hand with…?” The next expression is “Could you give me a hand with…” blah, blah, blah, meaning I need you, like, I need physically, I need your hands to help me, maybe. Or I need something, I need you to help me with something. “Could you give me a hand with this computer?” “Could you give me a hand with this furniture?” You can use it to talk about like moving something heavy or you can also use it for a task, like, “Could you give me a hand with this report? I don't know this information.” So, you can use it for, yeah, physical tasks or for mental tasks too, “Could you give me a hand with something?” In this sentence, “Could you give me a hand moving this sofa?” |
| “Can you show me how to…?” The next expression is, “Can you show me how to…?” “Can you show me how to…” blah, blah, blah. This means “please teach me something.” So, “Can you please show me how to use this computer?” “Can you show me how to use this software?” “Can you show me how to book a ticket?” These are all ways to ask for help with how to do something. This is a very useful expression, I think. |
| “Can you help me out with…?” The next expression is “Can you help me out with…?” “Can you help me out with something?” Before, we talked about “Can you give me a hand with…?” this is very similar, “Can you help me out with some task?” You can use it for physical activities or mental activities here. So, “Can you help me out with this project?” “Can you help me out with cleaning this house? I don't know. In this sentence, “Can you help me out with my homework?” |
| “I need help…” The next expression is “I need help…” blah, blah, blah. You can use the expression “I need help,” that's fine, but if you want to be specific, which I recommend, “I need help…” blah, blah, blah. “I need help with my homework.” “I need help doing the dishes.” “I need help cleaning the yard.” “I need help…” something, something, something. Very clear, very direct. It's a little bit casual I suppose. But, yeah, you can use this in most situation where you need help. This sentence, “I need help making dinner tonight.” |
| “Could you…?” The next expression is “Could you…?” The first expression we saw in this lesson was “Can you…?” you can also use “Could you…?” To me, “could you…?” sounds a little bit more formal than “can you…?” So, “Can you…?” blah, blah, blah is a good kind of neutral everyday way to ask for help. “Could you…?” sounds just a little bit more polite, a little bit more formal. So, “Could you please send me that file?” “Could you please stop smoking here?” In this expression, “Could you send me the project files?” |
| “Will you…?” The next expression is “Will you...?” So this is used, kind of, for light, maybe you just thought of something, you just thought of something you need help with. It's probably a small task or a small favor that you need. For example, “Will you get some milk at the store on your way home?” It's like something you just thought of for the future. So, “Will you help me with my homework?” “Will you give me a moment of your time?” It's something very small and very quick. In this sentence, “Will you let me know when you're free?” |
| “How do I…?” The next expression is “How do I…?” “How do I…?” This is somewhat similar to the earlier expression we talked about, “Can you show me how to…?” blah, blah, blah. But this one is “How do I…?” nah, nah, nah. “How do I get to the beach from here?” “How do I get to the station? “How do I turn on this computer?” “How do I make new friends?” “How do I study English?” All of these are ways to ask for help or ask for advice, ask for directions. This is a very nice and easy to remember way to ask for help, “How do I…?” something. |
| “Help!” The next expression is just “Help!” I would hear sometimes students say, “Please help me!” or just “Help!” and I want to point out that these expressions are usually used in emergency situations. For example, there's an accident or there's a dangerous person near you or maybe you're injured or hurt, some emergency. So, “Please help me!” alone sounds to a native speaker maybe like a serious situation or an emergency situation, “Help!” is similar, too. So, of course, if you're in an emergency situation, absolutely, you should use the words, “Help!” and “Please help me,” or just “Help me,” as well too. But be careful, because they sound very serious, I don't recommend using them for, like, light casual everyday situations where you need help. Instead, please use one of the other expressions we talked about in this lesson. So, “Help!” is great for emergencies, but maybe only for emergencies. So, yeah, in a sentence maybe for example, in the kitchen, you have a small accident in the kitchen, you can shout to your roommate or your family member, “Help me!” and they'll come running, if something, to check and see if you're okay. |
| “I need your help with…” The next expression is “I need your help with…” blah, blah, blah. The expression, “I need your help with…” sounds like you are required for this task, I need you. Maybe you have special knowledge or special experience with this thing or you are better equipped like you can do a better job than I can with this task, so I need you for some reason. So, “I need your help preparing this information.” “I need your help reaching that tall glass.” Like, that's really what I--I'm short so if I need something up high, I might say to a tall person, “I need your help reaching that glass up there.” You can use this--yes, someone is better at doing something than you are, you can say, “I need your help with…” blah, blah, blah. In this sentence, “I need your help with this project.” |
| That's the end. So those are “10 Words and 10 Phrases,” really, “That You Can Use to Ask for Help.” If you have any other ways you'd like to ask for help or if you have any questions about this video or ways to ask for help, please leave it in a comment and let us know about it. If you liked this video, please make sure to hit the thumbs up button and also subscribe to our channel if you haven't subscribed already. |
| Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and we will see you again soon. Bye. |
Comments
Hide