Polyglot Dictionary

helfen

/ˈhɛlfn̩/

verb A1

der (masc.) die (fem.) das (neut.)

Underline = a spelling pattern that usually signals that gender.

V Register Neutral Era Current Frequency Core Domain General Tone Neutral

Forms

du
hilfst
er/sie/es
hilft
past
half
perfect
hat geholfen

Meaning

  1. to help

    Takes the dative for the person helped — "Ich helfe dir," not dich.

    • Kannst du mir helfen?

      Can you help me?

    • Kannst du mir bitte beim Umzug helfen? Ich brauche jemanden zum Tragen.

      Can you help me with the move, please? I need someone to carry things.

V Category Action Concreteness Concrete Agency Voluntary Duration Durative Transitivity Transitive

Similar words

beistehen

Helfen is the plain, everyday word for "to help"; beistehen is more formal and emotional, "to stand by" someone through a hard time.

Similar in other languages

Portuguese

socorrer

socorrer is the Portuguese word for the same thing — both mean "to help."

Practice

1 What does helfen mean?

2 Fill the gap: Kannst du mir ___?

3 Which fingerprint chart matches helfen?

verbirregularcore-vocabulary

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