Helpi is the regular verb for giving assistance or making an action or result easier. Esperanto permits two established beneficiary frames—helpi iun and helpi al iu—and both occur from foundational texts through modern usage. An infinitive can then name the action assisted: helpi iun fari ion or helpi al iu fari ion.
Complete regular paradigm
| Form | Function | Typical translation |
|---|---|---|
| helpi | infinitive | to help |
| helpas | present indicative | helps, is helping |
| helpis | past indicative | helped |
| helpos | future indicative | will help |
| helpus | conditional | would help |
| helpu | volitive | help! |
No form changes for person or number. When the beneficiary is a direct object, it carries -n; after al, it does not.
Mi helpos vin post la tagmanĝo.
I will help you after lunch.
Multaj volontuloj helpis al la familioj post la inundo.
Many volunteers helped the families after the flood.
Helpu min, mi petas; ĉi tiu skatolo estas tro peza.
Help me, please; this box is too heavy.
Two standard beneficiary frames
The beneficiary can be a direct object or an al complement:
| Frame | Example | Role marking |
|---|---|---|
| helpi iun | helpi la najbaron | beneficiary is the object |
| helpi al iu | helpi al la najbaro | beneficiary follows al |
La apotekisto helpis min elekti taŭgan bandaĝon.
The pharmacist helped me choose a suitable bandage.
Ĉu vi povas helpi al mi pri ĉi tiu formularo?
Can you help me with this form?
— Kiu helpis vin dum la translokiĝo? — Du amikoj kaj mia frato.
— Who helped you during the move? — Two friends and my brother.
The two patterns are not a formal-versus-informal opposition. Both are neutral and well established. Direct-object helpi iun is compact and extremely common; helpi al iu can make the recipient-like role explicit or avoid competing objects elsewhere in the clause. A learner may choose the direct object as a simple default without treating al as an error.
Adding the action with an infinitive
An infinitive directly after helpi names the action that assistance facilitates. No por or al is required before the infinitive itself.
Mi helpos vin porti la valizojn ĝis la aŭto.
I will help you carry the suitcases to the car.
La instruisto helpis al ni kompreni la plej malfacilan parton.
The teacher helped us understand the most difficult part.
Ĉu iu povas helpi instali la novan presilon?
Can someone help install the new printer?
With an expressed beneficiary, that person is normally understood as a participant in the infinitive's action: in helpi vin porti, you are carrying and the helper contributes. The helper may also participate directly. Without a beneficiary, helpi instali means contribute to the installation; context supplies the larger group or project.
English allows both “help someone do” and “help someone to do.” Esperanto uses the visible -i infinitive directly: helpi fari, not helpi al fari. See Infinitives as Complements.
Helping with a task, means, or goal
Pri can introduce the matter or task area in which assistance is given. Per introduces the means used. A purpose phrase with por can name the larger goal, but it does not replace the direct infinitive complement.
La kolegino helpis min pri la financa parto de la raporto.
My colleague helped me with the financial part of the report.
Tiu diagramo helpis al ni per klara bildigo de la procezo.
That diagram helped us by clearly visualizing the process.
La volontuloj venis por helpi la familion purigi la domon.
The volunteers came in order to help the family clean the house.
In the last sentence, por helpi expresses why the volunteers came; inside that purpose phrase, helpi la familion purigi still links helpi directly to its action infinitive. The preposition belongs to the larger purpose relation, not between helpi and purigi.
When helpi means “be effective”
An intervention, remedy, or action can be the subject of helpi, with no personal beneficiary expressed. In this pattern, helpi means “work, be of help, improve the situation.”
La mallonga paŭzo vere helpis; nun mi povas denove koncentriĝi.
The short break really helped; now I can concentrate again.
Nek petoj nek minacoj helpis.
Neither requests nor threats helped.
Varma teo ofte helpas kontraŭ gorĝdoloro.
Warm tea often helps against a sore throat.
The kontraŭ phrase names what the remedy combats. In health contexts, this grammar statement does not amount to medical advice; it only describes the established complement pattern.
Things, causes, and projects as beneficiaries
The assisted participant need not be human. One can help a project, cause, development, or process. Both object and al frames remain possible.
La donaco helpos la renovigon de la komunuma centro.
The donation will help the renovation of the community center.
Pli bonaj buslinioj helpus al la loka ekonomio.
Better bus routes would help the local economy.
With abstract nouns, helpi al la disvolviĝo can mean contribute to development, while helpi la disvolviĝon presents the development more directly as affected. The semantic difference is usually slight and should not be exaggerated.
Participles
Direct-object uses license all six participles. In an al frame, active participles simply keep their prepositional complement.
| Active | Meaning | Passive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| helpanta | helping now | helpata | being helped |
| helpinta | having helped | helpita | having been helped |
| helponta | about to help | helpota | about to be helped |
La volontuloj helpantaj al la novaj loĝantoj renkontiĝos je la naŭa.
The volunteers helping the new residents will meet at nine.
Helpite de siaj kolegoj, ŝi finis la projekton ĝustatempe.
Helped by her colleagues, she finished the project on time.
The passive example corresponds to transitive la kolegoj helpis ŝin. If the active version is la kolegoj helpis al ŝi, an active reformulation is usually clearer than trying to force a passive from a prepositional complement.
Word family and malhelpi
Useful transparent forms include helpo “help,” helpanto “helper,” helpema “helpful/eager to help,” helpilo “aid/tool,” memhelpo “self-help,” and senhelpa “helpless.” The conventional opposite verb is malhelpi “hinder, obstruct, prevent.”
Dankon pro via helpo; sen ĝi ni ne estus finintaj hodiaŭ.
Thank you for your help; without it we would not have finished today.
La konstanta bruo malhelpis min dormi.
The constant noise prevented me from sleeping.
Malhelpi does not simply mean “fail to help.” It actively creates an obstacle. Like helpi, it can connect an affected person with an infinitive, but the result is opposite: helpi min dormi facilitates sleep; malhelpi min dormi obstructs it. The semantics of mal- are discussed under the prefix mal-.
La nova serĉilo estas simpla sed tre utila helpilo.
The new search tool is simple but very useful.
Register, norm, and frequency
Help- is Fundamental and high-frequency. Both helpi iun and helpi al iu have foundational or classical support and remain accepted neutral usage. Direct-object helpi iun is especially common in contemporary conversational prose, but that frequency does not make the al construction archaic or formal.
Infinitive complements and impersonal effectiveness uses are standard. Malhelpi is an established lexical derivative, while freely built forms such as helpilo remain transparent and productive. In formal instructions, explicitly naming the task with an infinitive often gives greater clarity than a vague standalone helpi.
Common Mistakes
Adding accusative after al
❌ Ĉu vi povas helpi al min?
Incorrect — the preposition al already marks the beneficiary role.
✅ Ĉu vi povas helpi al mi?
Can you help me?
Omitting accusative in the direct-object frame
❌ La najbaro helpis mia frato.
Incorrect — without al, the beneficiary is a direct object.
✅ La najbaro helpis mian fraton.
The neighbor helped my brother.
Inserting por before the action infinitive
❌ Ŝi helpis min por plenigi la formularon.
Incorrect for the direct help-complement pattern — por turns the infinitive into a purpose phrase.
✅ Ŝi helpis min plenigi la formularon.
She helped me fill out the form.
Using kun to mark the beneficiary
❌ Mi helpis kun ŝi plenigi la formularon.
Incorrect for ‘I helped her’ — kun ŝi makes her a companion in the helping, not its beneficiary.
✅ Mi helpis ŝin plenigi la formularon.
I helped her fill out the form.
Treating malhelpi as simple non-assistance
❌ Li ne venis helpi, do li malhelpis nin.
Incorrect inference — malhelpi means actively hinder, not merely fail to help.
✅ Li ne venis helpi, sed almenaŭ li ne malhelpis nin.
He did not come to help, but at least he did not hinder us.
Key Takeaways
- Both helpi iun and helpi al iu are standard; mark each frame consistently.
- An assisted action follows directly as an infinitive: helpi iun fari ion.
- Use pri for a task/domain, per for means, and kontraŭ for a problem a remedy combats.
- Helpi can stand without a beneficiary in the sense “be effective.”
- Malhelpi means actively hinder or prevent, not merely withhold help.
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- Verb-Preposition FramesB1 — Learn which Esperanto verbs take direct objects and which select al, pri, de, kun, or je—and how the frame changes meaning.
- Direct ObjectsA1 — Learn which Esperanto verb complements are direct objects, how -n marks them, and how object marking remains stable when word order changes.
- mal-: OppositesA2 — Form direct opposites with productive mal-, distinguish opposition from simple negation, and interpret its scope in larger derived words.
- The Six Participles: A System MapB1 — Map Esperanto's six participles by voice and relative time, then use them as adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and compound verb forms.