What Is The French Translation of “Help”?
The French translation of “help” as a noun is aide, which also means “assistance”. The infinitive verb form of “help” in French is aider. If you needed to ask for help with your luggage in a French airport, for instance, you’d use the following phrase: When speaking about different people in a sentence, we conjugate the French verb aiderby changing...
How Should You Use Aider as An Imperative?
Aidecan also be used as an imperative, which is like commanding someone to help another person. For example, if you notice that someone has been injured, but you have no medical knowledge, you might ask someone to help the injured person using the imperative. This is how to conjugate aider in the imperative mood: As you can’t instruct yourself to h...
Other Phrases to Ask For Help in French
There are a few other ways to ask for help in French. You’ll find some of the most common examples in the table below:
How Should You Use The Phrase Un Coup de Main?
Un coup de maintranslates to English as “a helping hand”. You’d use it for smaller favours, or to ask someone to help you out with something. For example, if you need to help a friend with choosing a gift for someone’s birthday, you might say: Un coup de mainis normally considered an informal phrase that you would use with friends and family. You c...
Speaking with Store Assistants: What Does Est-Ce Que Je peux Vous Aider Mean?
The phrase est-ce que je peux vous aidertranslates to English as “can I help you?” You’ll normally hear it in a retail store when you’re searching for clothes or shoes and you’ve been unable to discover the item you’re looking for. Note, the store assistant will use the vousform because they don’t know you. The responses you’ll give depend on what ...
Which Phrase Should You Use to Offer Someone Help in French?
Say you’re offering new neighbours who are older than you a bit of help in France to move their items into their home. The phrase you’ll need ask someone you don’t know if they need help is: Take note that as you don’t know the new neighbour and they’re also older than you, you’d use the vousform.
When Should You Use A l’aide Or Au Secours to Ask For Help?
There are specific, severe circumstances where you would use a l’aide or au secoursto ask for help. If you’ve witnessed a crime and need help, both a l’aide and au secourscan be used to ask anyone for help. For example, if you saw someone being attacked in an alleyway (and I hope you don’t), you might shout:
Asking For Help from Your Colleagues Using The Subjunctive
If you need help from your colleagues to put together a presentation, the phrase you’ll need is: What you’ll notice about this phrase is that it uses a formal, plural pronoun vous, to address the colleagues that the speaker doesn’t know. But it also uses the present subjunctive form of the verb aider; instead of aidez, it uses the verb aidiez. The ...