helfen: Full Conjugation and Usage

Helfen ("to help") looks simple but quietly breaks two English habits at once. First, it is a strong verb with the e → i shift in the present: ich helfe but du hilfst, er hilft — the e of the stem becomes i. Second, and more importantly, it is a dative verb: you help to someone, so the person helped stands in the dative, not the accusative. English says "I help you" (object); German says Ich helfe dir (dative), never Ich helfe dich. This is the most common helfen error English speakers make, and it persists well into B1 if left uncorrected.

Principal parts

Read this as helfen – half – hat geholfen. Unlike the inseparable verbs verstehen or bekommen, helfen has no prefix, so its participle takes the normal ge-: geholfen. The vowel runs e → a → o (present e, past a, participle o). The auxiliary is haben.

Präsens (present)

The defining feature: the e → i vowel change in the du- and er/sie/es-forms. Ich helfe, but du hilfst, er hilft. The other persons keep the e.

Präteritum (simple past)

The vowel shifts to a, giving the stem half-. The ich- and er-forms take no ending.

Perfekt (present perfect)

Built with haben + geholfen — note the regular ge- prefix, since helfen is prefixless.

Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)

Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + geholfen.

Futur I

werden + infinitive helfen.

Imperativ (commands)

Because of the e → i shift, the du-command drops the -e and uses the i-stem: Hilf! This is irregular relative to weak verbs and worth memorizing.

Konjunktiv II (would help / helped, hypothetical)

The synthetic Konjunktiv II has two forms: hülfe (the older, more literary form, with umlaut on the past stem) and hälfe (also attested). Both sound formal; everyday speech uses the würde-form.

Government and usage

Helfen takes its person object in the dative: Ich helfe meinem Freund ("I'm helping my friend"). The thing you help with uses one of two patterns:

• helfen bei + dative: help with a task — Sie hilft mir bei den Hausaufgaben ("She helps me with my homework").
• helfen + zu-infinitive: help to do something — Er hilft mir, die Möbel zu tragen ("He helps me carry the furniture"). In casual speech the zu is sometimes dropped (Hilf mir tragen), a bare-infinitive variant that is acceptable when both verbs are adjacent.

Why dative? German treats helfen as directing aid toward someone — the same "to/for someone" logic behind other dative verbs like danken (thank), gehören (belong), gefallen (please) and antworten (answer). English lost most of these dative markings, which is exactly why English speakers default to the accusative here.

helfen vs. unterstützen

Helfen is the everyday, hands-on word and always takes a dative person. Unterstützen ("to support") is more formal, often about backing someone financially, politically, or morally, and it takes the accusative (Ich unterstütze dich, not dir). Mixing up their cases is a classic slip — see unterstützen.

Common idioms and fixed expressions

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Principal parts: helfen – half – hat geholfen (auxiliary haben; regular ge- participle).
• Strong vowel run e – a – o, with the e → i shift in the present du/er-forms (hilfst, hilft).
• The du-imperative is the irregular Hilf!
• Government is dative (Ich helfe dir), never accusative — the cardinal error to avoid.
• Patterns: helfen bei + dative and helfen + zu-infinitive.
• Don't confuse it with unterstützen, which means "support" and takes the accusative.