MUCH better and MORE polite ways to ask for HELP in English | Improve speaking skills

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Okay, in this particular lesson, we're going to look at the word "help."

And in particular, different ways in which we can say "help."

Or how we can ask for help.

So it's an advanced English lesson.

And it's all to do with other ways to say help.

Now, as I've often said, British native speakers English, people don't really like being so

direct.

So if they want to ask somebody for help, they won't just say "Help me," you know, unless

they're in a really, really tricky situation.

But they'll use different ways in which they can ask for help something.

Sometimes people might consider these to be a little bit more polite, of which of course

they are, because they're indirect statements or questions rather than direct statements

or questions.

So we're going to go through them one by one, I've got a list of 12 in total.

And I'll give you examples when you can use them.

Some of them sound the same, but I'll give you situations when you can use them.

And this will give you an idea as to how you can use them.

And hopefully this will help you.

Okay, so would you mind helping me?

So question.

Would you mind helping me?

I need some assistance.

Could you give me a hand?

I need your support.

Could you or will you do me a favour?

Do you know anything about...?

Would you mind showing me...?

Could you spare a moment?

This is difficult, or this is tricky, can you help me?

Would it be too much to ask...?

Or would it be too much trouble to ask you to...?

I'm struggling with this, can you help me...?

Will you lend me a hand, please?

Or will you lend me a hand with this?

Okay,

so 12 ways in which you can ask for help.

Okay, let's go through them one by one.

As I said, I'll give you an example when you can use them or situation when these can be

used.

Would you mind helping me?

Well, this can be a general request.

You could be in a department store, and you're trying to open the door of the department

store into the street, or perhaps you're trying to get into the elevator and you got some

bags or boxes in your hand and you can't quite reach the handle or the button, you might

ask somebody, Would you mind helping me?

Or deed at home, if you're trying to do something.

Take perhaps down some clean bed linen from a tub on top of the wardrobe, take down the

Christmas tree decorations from wherever you store them.

And then when you want to put all those decorations or change the bed linen, you would ask somebody,

Would you mind helping me, I can't do this on my own.

I need some assistance.

Well, this is very, very formal, okay.

And it's it's quite specific and need some assistance.

And it's usually when you've got some trouble.

So for example, you could be driving along the motorway, and your car breaks down, or

you get a puncture.

So you find one of these motorway phones or service stations, and you might dial the number

for emergency and they say, Can I help you?

And you say, Yeah, I need some assistance.

My car has broken down on the motorway.

I'm at this junction or this intersection.

And could you please send somebody to help?

So I need some assistance.

Or indeed if you're in an office and perhaps it's a little bit formal.

Or you're you're trying to finish a report you need to do some photocopying to make some

attachments or clip together certain reports, whatever it is you have to do.

You might ask somebody in your team.

Look, I'm sorry to trouble you but I need some assistance to finish this report.

I've only got 30 minutes, and I was wondering if you could help me so I need some assistance.

Could you give me a hand And so little bit more informal.

Could you give me a hand?

And this is something we could ask friends or neighbours or hopefully family.

Yeah, I'm getting dinner ready cooking.

And the table needs to be set and laid for the four or five or six people whoever is

going to have dinner.

I say, Okay, could you give me a hand?

I'd have dinner ready in 15 minutes but it would be great if somebody could set the table.

Take the knives, the forks, the cutlery, the glasses, whatever is needed, put it on the

table, set it and I'll finish the dinner.

So could you give me a hand?

I'm going to do some spring cleaning at the weekend, it'd be great if someone could give

me a hand and get it done in no time.

And then we could perhaps go and have a pizza.

Okay, so as a reward for somebody giving you some help, so could you give me a hand?

I need your support.

Again, it's a little bit more formal.

It could be used when somebody perhaps knocks on your door, they're going door to door looking

for your vote in an election.

So they need your support because they want to try and get elected.

So when you answer the door, they might say, Oh, Good evening, Madam or Good evening, Sir.

My name is John Smith.

I represent the local Green Party, and I need your support.

With your support, I'd be able to get elected.

I'll be able to push through these ideas to make the area greener, better, a better environment

to live in.

I need your support.

Okay, next, could you or will you (so you can use either), could you or will you do

me a favour?

Okay, now hmmm...

Here you're going to make sure you don't say could you make me a favour?

Okay, it's not make me a favour.

Can you do me a favour?

Yeah.

So if somebody asks you, could you do me a favour?

You will just reply, Yes, sure.

What do you want me to do?

Okay, so could you do me a favour?

Somebody might ask you can you do me a favour and pick me up tomorrow?

My car is in the garage getting serviced, and I really can't get to the station because

it's a long way away.

So if you could do me a favour, I would really appreciate it.

I really be very happy if you could do that favour for me.

Again, as I said, make sure you don't say, and you make me a favour.

It's not that.

It's Can you do me a favour.

We always do somebody a favour.

Next, do you know anything about...?

Well, perhaps you're talking to your friend, or perhaps you're talking to a family member.

You got a bit of a problem at home.

There's a leaking tap or there's a little leak under the sink.

And you say, Do you know anything about plumbing?

Do you know anything about bathroom taps?

It looks to me like a very small job.

And if you could help me, that would be really great.

So do you know anything about...

And that usually leads to Do you know anything about plumbing?

Do you know anything about assembling Ikea furniture?

Do you know anything about the accident and emergency department?

Do they operate on a bank holiday?

Yeah.

So do you know anything about and then you introduce what your problem is.

Plumbing, laptops.

Do you know anything about laptops?

Mine just won't work.

Every time I switch it on, it sort of switches itself off.

I think it's died.

But I don't know what is wrong.

Whether it's something I'm doing, or is it something that I could get fixed?

Do you know anything about?

Would you mind showing me?

So if you're new to the city, you're new to the office, you're new to the university,

you might simply ask somebody that you get to talk to, Would you mind showing me around

the campus?

I'm new here, and I don't know where everything is.

Or when you join a company.

Would you mind showing me where everything is?

And you know, where the canteen is, where the key reception is?

Where the facilities are like loos, where the meeting rooms are.

All of those types of things.

Where do we keep stationery supplies?

Yeah.

Would you mind showing me where?

Would you mind show me where something is?

Or would you mind showing me around the city?

You know, I'm just new here and it will be great to get a bit of a chance to get a look

around and see where I can go with the kids.

You know, you see where the schools are shopping centres, places of interest, like museums,

art galleries, whatever that might be.

Would you mind showing me...?

Okay, next, Could you spare a moment...

So when we ask somebody to spare a moment, it's quite informal.

And to spare a moment is to give somebody a few moments of their time to help you.

Could you spare me moment and go over this document with me?

I know where what's needed.

But I just need to know who these people are that I have to send it to.

If you could spare me a moment, I would really appreciate it if you could take me down through

the agenda to see what you will take care of and what you want me to take care of.

Because there seems to be a lot on the agenda.

Some of it is in my area, some of it is in your area.

If so, if you could spare me a moment, we could sit down together, go through it and

decide what you can do, what I can do, and then perhaps, what we can do together.

Yeah, so if you could spare me a moment.

Or you might just ask the kids and your partner at home, okay.

Is anybody there can spare me a moment to run to the shops and get some milk and get

some flour.

If you want me to finish these pizzas, you better go.

Okay, so if somebody could spare a moment and just slip on the shoes and run down to

the shop to take your five minutes, okay, so again, looking for some help around the

home looking for somebody to give you some assistance.

This is difficult, or this is tricky, can you help.

So again, it's a request for some assistance, or some help when something is a little bit

difficult, or a little bit tricky.

It could be a crossword puzzle, I really like doing crossword puzzles.

But occasionally, you get into a little bit of a problem with some words, these clues

are a little bit tricky.

Can you help me, okay.

Or when you get to the final bits, when you're assembling the Ikea furniture, there's a few

little nuts and bolts that you're not quite sure where they go, or you're not quite sure

how to assemble them because if you put them the wrong way around the cupboard, or the

drawer won't slide open properly.

So you might say to your partner, okay, would you mind?

Can you help me here?

Because this or these instructions are a little bit difficult or a little bit tricky to read.

Okay, so they will be classic.

Or if you're trying to work out how to set up a particular app on your phone, and this

seems to be a little bit tricky.

Can you help?

Can you help with something that's a little bit tricky, or a little bit difficult?

And then when we have a nice, really polite way of asking somebody, would it be too much

trouble to ask you to....

A wonderful request that parents can make to their children.

Would it be too much trouble to ask you to lower that radio?

Would it be too much trouble to ask you to turn down the sound and the music?

It's really, really loud and I've got a thumping headache.

And I really don't have the patience to listen to it.

Would it...

Would it be really too much trouble to ask you to pick your clothes up off the floor?

Put them in the washing machine.

Or if you can't manage that, could you please at least put them in the linen basket or hang

them up?

Okay, so would it be too much trouble for you to do this?

Would it be too much trouble if I asked you to do this?

Can you help me, I'm struggling with this...

I can't seem to work out the answer.

So again, is a request for help.

Now, it could be for lots of things.

But if you're trying to work out some mathematical problem or equation, then you could ask a

friend in college, if they could help you.

Can you help me?

I'm struggling with this formula.

I just don't really understand it.

Yeah.

Can you help me, I'm struggling with this box to simply physically carry it up the stairs,

you might be moving to a new apartment.

And when you've got some heavy items to carry, you can struggle to carry them.

So you might ask your partner look, I'm struggling to get this up the stairs, it took me ages

to get it out of the car.

So if you could take one end, I'll take the other end.

And that will be easy for us to walk up.

Two sets of hands are better than one.

So I'm struggling.

So if you could help me with this.

And then finally, will you or can you lend me a hand with this?

It'll only take me 10 minutes if you help me.

So for example, when you're changing the bed linen takes on always takes me ages to get

that duvet into the duvet cover.

But if there are two people, it takes no time at all.

So somebody I hold the corners left and right and my wife slips in the duvet cover.

And then the duvet fits in very nicely and very easily.

And then within five or 10 minutes, the bed is changed or the bed is dressed.

So I would say to well, lend me the hand with this, can you because it just takes a little

bit longer when it's only one person.

So lend me a hand quite informal, nice, easy, gentle, polite way to ask somebody to help.

Lend me a hand with this and I lend your hand with that.

So if you lend me hand dressing the bed, I lend your hand with the washing up, I'll empty

the dishwasher.

So it was my job to empty the dishwasher.

Easy to fill it, not so easy to empty it.

Okay, so you help me with this.

And I'll help you with that.

So it's all about help, all of our requests for help.

Different ways in which you can ask someone to help you where you have a difficulty.

So as I said at the beginning, it's a little bit more polite, some of them are formal,

some of them are more informal.

Just a question of choosing the right ones.

Okay, let me go through them again quickly.

Would you mind helping me?

I need some assistance.

Could you give me a hand?

I need your support.

Could you or will you do me a favour and remember to do me a favour?

Do you know anything about...

Would you mind showing me... how?

Could you spare a moment?

This is difficult or this is tricky.

Can you help me?

Would it be too much trouble to ask you to...

I'm struggling, can you help me?

And then finally, lend me a hand with this, please.

Lend me a hand with this.

Can you?

Okay, 12 different ways or other ways for you to say help?

And if we can help you to improve your English well, you know where to contact me www.englishlessonviaskype.com

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