Asking and Offering Help
Asking and Offering Help
Asking and Offering Help
By Ma’am Yuri
1. Definition
Asking and offering for help is one of the expression in English which states that we ask
and provide assistance to someone. Usually the asking / offering for help sentence starts
with the capital Auxiliaries in the form of can, may, will, will, shall, should, may, might, and
must.
4. Examples
a. Asking for help sentence
· Can you help me? (Bisakah kamu menolongku)
· Could you please give me a hand? (Bisakah kamu menolong saya?)
· Would you like to help me? (Maukah kamu menolongku?)
e. Accepting Offers
· Thank you. (terimakasih)
· Yes, please. (ya tolong)
· I'd like it very much. (aku akan sangat menyukainya)
f. Declining Offers
· No thanks. (tidak terimakasih)
· I can't, thanks anyway (aku tidak bisa, terimakasih)
· No, I really won't, thank you (tidak, aku tidak mau, terimakasih)
5. Conversations
Risna : Hello Janah you looks so busy, may I help you?
Janah : Yes I am. Could you please print out that paper?
Risna : Sure, and where should I print it ?
Janah : Please print out this at “print200” store.
Risna : Okay Miss Ratu. Is there anything else?
Janah : No it's enough. Thank you very much for your help Risna.
Risna : Your welcome.
When you want to offer help, how do you make your offer in English? It’s very common for
English speakers to offer help in the conversation just to be polite and helpful. So there are
some certain expressions that we use in order to make your offer. And what exact
expressions are used? It’s always nice to offer help, right? A lot of English learners get a little
nervous to open their mouth when they want to help. So I’m sure these expressions are
really helpful to you.
Can I …?
When you start making your offer, you might say “Can I …?”. “Can I…?” is always a good
choice of expression, especially when you are in a social situation. Like when you are in a
party or you have guests at home.
Shall I…?
You can begin to make your offer by using the phrase “Shall I…?”. This is a pretty formal way
of speaking. You can use this phrase when you are at work, at school or at any formal
places.
After making the offer, you wait for the answer. Don’t go ahead and start helping. Just wait
for an answer. If your offer is welcome, then go ahead and help them. But if someone
refuses your help, don’t worry about it.
Accept offers
There are situations you accept offers or decline offers. When you are at the other end,
someone is asking if he/she can help you. How do you accept it? Or, how do you decline it?
Here are some phrases that you can use to respond to any offers. If someone asks you
politely, you might say “Yes, please. I’d like to / I’d love to”.
When you are at work and your colleague comes up to you and offer help. And you are
happy that he/she is ready to assist you with the work. You don’t want to show on your face
that you are very excited about their help. The best way to accept the offer by saying:
You are at a party and someone offers you a drink. You can say thank you and show that you
are excited about their help.
Decline offers
There are times you really don’t want any help, how do you decline the offer made?
When you want to decline the offers without saying something very rude like “No. I’ll
manage.”. You might say:
When you are at a shopping mall, you are looking to buy something. A staff in the store
comes up and offer a help.
The simplest way to decline the offers is to say: “No, thank you.”