Thio Every language.

Really.

We're always asking for help for something in our lives.

So it's quite important to understand the different ways we can ask for help in English.

There are many different phrases, expressions, words that we can use just to simply asked for some assistance.

Some help.

So today that is what we will be looking at, as well as how to actually use your intonation on pronunciation to actually sound like you need help and not to sound like a robot.

Let's dio i everybody, It's Elliot from E.

T.

J.

English and welcome to another British English lesson.

But really, today is a lesson about all English.

People from all different countries will use thes phrases to ask for help.

Firstly, let's take a look at the word help.

I think it's important that we know how to pronounce.

The first thing we need to look at is the letter H, so the sound at the beginning It depends what country you're from, But many native languages have a problem with putting too much tightness in the throat, and it could become war the ha sound.

So it's very important, not toe over.

Exaggerate.

This sound is a very soft, very relaxed sound in English.

So just softly release the sound help.

Okay, so that's the first thing.

The second sound is an s sound like in my name.

Elliott, the tongue is in the middle of the mouth were slightly smiling.

And that's because the tongue is at the front of the mouth.

Okay.

When the tongue comes to the front of the mouth, the lips will spread slightly.

Look at my face.

My tongue is in the middle area of my mouth at the front.

Uh huh.

Uh huh, uh huh, Uh huh.

Now, this is where it starts to get difficult.

We have the dark l So in English, we have the light l love in words like light on.

We have the dark hell in words like help.

So with the light out, the tongue is pushing up against the top of the mouth.

And then it flicks down to create a lot love, right, But the dark hell, we're not doing that movement.

We're just keeping the tongue at the top of the mouth on the sound is more like a hmm.

A Well, hell, hell, and then we finish with a nice sound.

So put your lips together and release the sound.

Help!

Help!

Now I don't usually recommend just shouting this word at someone because it can sound route unless you are in an emergency in public.

So let's say you're in public.

There are people around, but they don't know about something really dreadful.

That's just happened.

Maybe somebody just stole your wallet or your purse or your bag.

Then what you're going to do is probably shout the word help.

Now you don't just want to say help, help, because what happens there is it sounds very flat.

There's no tone on.

People will not here the sense of emergency.

To create a sense of emergency, we need to use an emotional tone.

We would call this a rise and fall tone or up, down tone.

So instead of being help, it would be help hell up down.

This tone is really important to English.

It creates effect.

It creates emotion.

It's a very, very powerful tone on it's one which most students who joined my course do not use so again that would be in an emergency if you needed to shout for help.

Help!

Okay, up, down.

Obviously, don't go around practicing this on a train or in a public place because people will think that you're being killed or attacked in the street.

Make sure you practice this in the comfort of your own home, but now we know how to shout for help.

Now it's important to maybe ask for help in different ways, maybe in the workplace or from a friend in a particular situation.

So here are a few useful phrases for you, which should be able to help in different situations.

Firstly, probably one I use the most.

Um, this is more in a work situation.

Let's say there is someone who I need some time from, so maybe I'm working on something, but I need someone to dedicate a bit of time to me.

I need them to help me for a little bit.

Maybe it's a manager, someone higher than me or someone who has some really good knowledge on something which I'm working on.

I would actually say to them their names.

So let's say their name is John.

I could say, John, could I borrow you for a sec.

Could I borrow you for a sec?

Firstly, sec, some of you might be wondering what the sec mean.

It's a short version of Second.

It's very, very common for us to say this even nowadays, informal situations.

It's okay to say SEC, but if you are worried, feel free to say second.

So, John, could I borrow you for a second borrow?

That means Can I take you and keep you for, you know, for a few seconds or a few minutes when we say sec or second, we don't mean one second, obviously.

Azan, English speaker.

Generally, that could mean anywhere between I don't know, 10 seconds all the way up to 20 minutes.

Eso don't take that too seriously.

So could I borrow you for a sec?

Notice how I'm pronouncing for?

I'm not saying Can I borrow you or could I borrow you for a sec?

I'm saying for a sec.

I'm pronouncing four.

As for and then using the are to help me connect to the vowel for a sec.

If you're a bit confused about connected speech, don't have very good understanding off it.

I have many videos here which helped with that you can find them on my channel.

So number one is Could I borrow you for a sec?

Remember to use their name at the beginning.

It does create mawr of, ah, connection.

Another one I use all of the time is would you give me a hand?

John, can you give me a hand or could you give me a hand?

Can Could you can use either.

Could you give me a hand or can you give me a hand?

Notice how I'm going hand?

This is making it into a question.

Can you give me a hand?

I'm raising the tone at the end hand to make it sound like I'm asking.

Yes, no question.

I need an answer, You know.

Could you come over here and help me?

Alternatively, if you notice someone might need some help, you could say to them Do you need a hand?

Do you need a hand?

Okay.

So same thing again.

But now we're asking them if they need help.

Ah, hand just means help.

Like the old phrase a helping hand, um or kind of indirect way of asking someone for help is let me give you an example.

Actually, we'll start with an example.

Let's say I am not very good at thinking of words.

You know, when I'm writing an essay, maybe a really important essay on I want to use, um, or intelligent words in my essay.

Perhaps I'm using the word good.

A nice too much.

Now I could say to my friends again, John, I could say, John, you're good with words, aren't you?

You're good with words, aren't you?

By saying this, I'm kind of showing John that I need some help.

I'm kind of telling John that I know he's good at this, so I need his help.

So I would say, John, you're good with words, aren't you?

And then he might say, Yeah, what do you need or Yeah.

Do you need some help?

Right, So that's a great way of opening a question you could even say, John, you're good with words, aren't you?

Could you give me a hand?

Okay, so now we've turned it into a really big question, and it also sounds very polite.

This is very advanced.

Of course.

Ah, very, very formal way of asking for help is very simple.

You could just say I was wondering if you could help me with this.

I was wondering if you could help me with this.

So this turns it into quite a formal, you know, saying that you were wondering.

Meaning they don't have to.

But you were kind of thinking about Maybe they could help you with this on DWhite.

This does, is it?

It makes it sound friendly.

It makes you sound approachable on it's also quite formal.

You're being polite.

So, John, I was wondering if you could help me with this.

If you need someone's opinion, you could say, Can I get your opinion or input?

Can I get your input on this?

Okay.

So thes air, all kind of ways of asking for help with maybe a project you're doing something you're doing that you need help with.

And really, those are the main ways that I've noticed other people and also myself asking for help in various situations.

I would say the most common are give me a hand that's really, really common in the UK, especially on also, can I borrow you if you need someone for quite maybe a long amount of time on?

Do you want them to do something for you, so those would be my to kind of go to once.

But you're welcome to experiment with many different ways on It's okay just to say, Can you help me?

Honestly, it's absolutely fine to say that, but I'm just here to give you MAWR options on more ways of perhaps being more playful and having fun with your English because we don't want to be bored when we're speaking English and using the same expressions all of the time can often make things quite boring.

So play around.

Have fun.

Now, if you're looking to learn more about how to pronounce these words, pronounce these expressions.

It's my job.

I'm a professional pronunciation teacher.

You're welcome to join my pronunciation course.

All of the details are in the link in the description below e.

T.

J english dot com.

Andi, you can learn both with my course and with me through WhatsApp and wechat voice messaging, whichever you prefer.

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Cheers, guys.