Ayudar vs. ayudarle

Question

I looked up the conjugations for ayudar and could not find ayudarle. Can someone explain the difference and the grammer rule i am missing please.

Answer 1

Ayudar = to help

eg.

Tal vez él puede ayudar.

Maybe he can help.

but when you mention the help being given to someone you use an object pronoun ..

le = is an indirect object pronoun, (to/for) him, her

So you'll more often than not see sentence with ayudar using the indirect object pronouns such as le - where ayuda is said to be given 'to' someone.

¿Cómo puedo ayudarle hoy?

How may I help you today?

But if we get technical, ayudar is a transitive verb so should have a direct object instead of an indirect one.

ayudarlo or ayudarla etc - help him, help her

Apparently it used to be intransitive and this use carries over so that you will hear many native speakers using the indirect object pronoun.

Answer 2

Ayudarle is not a conjugation. It's the infinitive with an indirect object (le) appended to it.

¿Puedo ayudarle con eso? Can I help you with that?

how do you know when to append an indirect object to an infinitive? is it a style thing? Is "¿Puedo ayudar con eso?" any different? - philw703, May 3, 2013

good - gohern, May 3, 2013

Answer 3

verbo:pronominal ayudarse (mutuamente) to help each other; (valerse de) to make use of; use
ayúdate y Dios te ayudará God helps those who help themselves