act in the interests of - aid - all alone - appeal - assist - assistance - at your command - at your service - attend to - auxiliary aids - backscratching - bail out - be cruel to be kind - be my guest - be of assistance - benefactor - boost - buddy - buddy system - bust out - by itself - by yourself - call in - call on - calve - carry through - childcare vouchers - come to sb's assistance - come to the aid of - come to the rescue - contribute - customer support - desperate - distress - distress call - distress signal - electioneer - emotional support - enlist - errand of mercy - feed into - first aid - friend in need - general staff - get started - give a hand - give a helping hand - give me a hint - give support - hand Show
Spanish: asistir - ayudita - hombrear - remediar - socorro - chacha - dar una mano - asistencia - atender - ¿en qué puedo servirle? - a Dios rogando y con el mazo dando - acorrer - al arrimo de algo - apoyar con - apoyar contra - arrimar el hombro - asistencia familiar - asistenta - atender a los clientes - autoayuda - auxiliar - auxilio - ay - ayuda - ayuda desinteresada - ayuda técnica - ayudar - ayudar con - ayudarse a sí mismo - centrar - centro de atención a usuarios - coadyuvar - colaborar con alguien - colaborar en algo - con ayuda de - consultar por - contar con la ayuda de - echar un cable - echar un capote - estamos para servirle - información - intentar ayudar - junto con - mande - no aguantar la risa - pinche - ser de ayuda - servir - sin ayuda de - sin contar con If you need to cry Help! in Spanish, then you probably don’t have time to Google how to say it. But for those of you who are prepared for everything, here’s everything you need to know. The first word we learn for help in Spanish in any textbook is ayuda. This is definitely a useful word to know, and of course if you’re crying out ¡¡Ayuda!! then everyone is going to know you need help urgently. But there are other words you might hear others say, and it’s good to know what they mean. Also, as time goes on, if an emergency arises, you may benefit from knowing how to ask for help in a more common way. Finally, there are many ways of getting help in non-emergencies that are far more common, like in a store. We’ll cover those first! If you like this guide, you might also enjoy the following articles
Contents
Help in Spanish — In A NutshellBelow is a table of all the ways you can call for help (or ask for help) in Spanish, plus context on how to use them. See below for variations on these and more discussion. SpanishEnglishWhen to use¿Me puede ayudar, por favor?Can you help me please?In a store, on the street from a stranger¿Le puedo ayudar?Can I help you?Offering help to a stranger¿Me puede dar una mano?Can you give me. hand?Asking for someone to give you a hand¿Le puedo servir?¿Le puedo asistir?Can I help you?You may hear this from people offering you help/service¡Ayúdeme!Help me!Getting help in a dire situation¡Socorro! ¡Auxilio!Help!Help in life-and-death situationsTable of ways of asking for help in Spanish Emergency Help numbers in Spanish-speaking CountriesFirst, some useful information — emergency help numbers. Call these numbers if you have to. And speak English if it will get help faster — I’m not totally sure about everywhere, but I’d presume most emergency operators know functional English (but it will vary from country to country and individual to individual). If you’re in an emergency in a Spanish-speaking country, here are some emergency numbers to call for Spain and Latin American countries: 128 (Medical) 115 (Fire)Cuba106 (Police) 105 (Fire) 104 (Medical)Chile133 (Police) 132 (Fire) 131 (Medical)Many other LatAm countries911General emergency numbers for Spanish-speaking countries Asking for help in a store or on the streetIf you’re in the store and you want to ask an attendant for help, start with Perdon… or Perdone (slightly more formal), and then say ¿Me puede ayudar, por favor?Sometimes I also say ¿Me puede explicar algo, por favor? if I want them to explain something. Variations on this Can you help me in Spanish ¿Me puedes ayudar? When to use it Informal, if the person is clearly a lot younger than you, or you’re both young Read next: 6 Useful Ways to Say I’m Sorry in Spanish Offering help in SpanishSometimes it’s nice to offer strangers help. I like to do this to increase global understanding and help the image of tourists in the eyes of locals. The most common time I do this is when I see an older person (usually female) carrying a big piece of luggage up a flight of stairs. In this case, I use one of the following phrases: Spanish
English
More on that last phrase in the next part! Giving or getting “a hand” with somethingJust like in English, in Spanish you say “Can you give me a hand?” when you want some help or if you want to offer help. There are three ways of saying “give a hand” in Spanish. Spanish
English
In most situations, dar una mano works both ways, both when receiving or giving help. You use prestar una mano when asking for help, like “can you lend you a hand?” You could offer help with prestar Here are some phrases you can use to get or offer help in Spanish using the phrase “a hand”. How people say “May I help you?”You often people here “may I help you?” in a store. But times you want to say it to someone else, like if someone is staring or it looks like they want to ask a question. Here are a few ways of offering to be of help in Spanish. Spanish
English
To request help — Pedir AyudaThis is a phrase you can use to suggest to someone that they get help in Spanish. You’d use it in contexts like “Why don’t you go get some help?” Spanish
English
Note: Don’t use the verb preguntar (“to ask”) when asking for help — asking for something is with pedir. Getting Help in Dire SituationsThe first way you learn to cry for help in Spanish from a textbook or phrasebook is to say ¡Ayuda!. But this is actually not the most useful way to ask for help in Spanish. By itself, this word means “help”. It can also be interpreted as the first-person imperative, but that’s more rare. More common than simply saying ¡Ayuda! is to say ¡Ayúdame! (to young people or between younger people), ¡Ayúdeme! (to an individual) or ¡Ayúdenme! to a group of people. Saying ¡Ayuda! isn’t “wrong”; it’s just not what you’d most often hear. Emergencies — ¡Socorro! ¡Auxilio!When in an actual emergency — like someone has passed out, or you’re in a situation that’s life-threatening to yourself — you can call out anything, but calling out ¡Socorro! or ¡Auxilio! is standard Spanish for “Help!”. You can also just call them back to back. ¡Socorro! ¡Auxilio! ¡Ayúdenme! They’re basically synonyms. The root words have very similar meanings. The very socorrer means “to come to the aid of” (WordReference), and the verb auxiliar means “to give aid to” or “to attend” (WordReference). Contextually, the difference between socorro and auxilio is subtle and not terribly important in an actual emergency. But from the definitions and how I see them used, socorro (which is used more often) is generally more help for oneself; auxilio is help for someone else. This is not a rule — either works, and the above distinction is just what I’ve seen from context. Also, apart from hearing all the words back to back, auxilio is used less often. How NOT to say Help in Spanish — Ayudar vs AsistirLastly, it’s worth pointing out the wrong way of offering or asking for help in Spanish — DON’T use the verb asistir. The verb asistir in Spanish is most commonly used to mean “to attend” or “to be present for”, in the sense of going to a place. For example, you would asisitir a meeting or a convention.
But just to be confusing, asisitir can also mean “to attend to” in the sense of providing help. For example, you can use asistir to say things like “El médico asistió al paciente” to say “The doctor attended to the client”. You may also note that asistencia does translate to “assistance”, and is basically a synonym for ayuda in that sence. But asistencia can also mean “attendance”. Does ayuda mean help?It is actually a Spanish word, which means “assistance,” although generally Filipinos are more likely to use tulong, or among Ilonggos bulig, both of which mean “help.”
How can I help you in Spanish formal?If you want to say “How can I help you?” in Spanish, you would say, “¿Cómo puedo ayudarte?” (informal singular) or “¿Cómo puedo ayudarle?” (formal singular). There are some other variations that add levels of nuance to the question, but the preceding will work well in most instances.
How do you assist someone in Spanish?The first word we learn for help in Spanish in any textbook is ayuda. This is definitely a useful word to know, and of course if you're crying out ¡¡Ayuda!! then everyone is going to know you need help urgently.. ¿Le puedo ayudar con algo?. ¿En que puedo ayudar?. ¿Le puedo servir?. What assist means in Spanish?intransitive verb. (= help) ayudar. to assist in sth ayudar en algo. to assist in doing sth ayudar a hacer algo.
|