βοηθάω/βοηθώ (to help) | Greek Grammar

Nothing about the forms of βοηθάω is difficult; what English speakers get wrong is the shape of the sentence around it. Greek treats the person helped as a direct object in the accusative, the same case a verb like see or find takes, and then needs a second slot for whatever the help is about. Sorting those two out is most of what this card is for.

Principal parts

Slot	Forms	Note
Present	βοηθάω/βοηθώ, βοηθάς, βοηθάει/βοηθά, βοηθάμε/βοηθούμε, βοηθάτε, βοηθάνε/βοηθούν(ε)
Imperfect	βοηθούσα — also βοήθαγα (informal)
Aorist	βοήθησα, βοήθησες, βοήθησε, βοηθήσαμε, βοηθήσατε, βοήθησαν	η throughout — ×βοήθισα
Dependent	βοηθήσω — θα / να βοηθήσω
Imperative	βοήθα / βοηθάτε · βοήθησε / βοηθήστε	with a clitic: βοήθησέ με, second accent and all
Perfect	έχω / είχα βοηθήσει
Gerund	βοηθώντας
Mediopassive	βοηθιέμαι, formal βοηθούμαι · aorist βοηθήθηκα	narrow; commonest as a reciprocal plural — see below

The extra accent on βοήθησέ με is not optional and not a typo: when a clitic attaches to an imperative and pushes the stress back to the fourth syllable from the end, Greek writes a second accent to keep the word legal. That rule belongs to clitics with the imperative.

Government

Frame	Example	Reading
accusative	Τον βοήθησα.	the person helped — never a genitive
accusative + σε	Με βοήθησε στα μαθηματικά.	the field or task
accusative + με	Βοήθα με με το τραπέζι.	the particular job at hand
accusative + να	Με βοήθησε να μετακομίσω.	the action helped along
σε, no person	Βοήθησε στην οργάνωση της γιορτής.	contribute to something
no complement at all	Βοηθάει να μιλάς αργά.	impersonal "it helps to"

Σε βοηθάω εγώ, μην το σηκώνεις μόνος σου.

se voitháo eghó, min to sikónis mónos su

I'll help you, don't lift it on your own.

Τον βοήθησα να γράψει την αίτηση και του πήρε δέκα λεπτά.

ton voíthisa na ghrápsi tin étisi ke tu píre dhéka leptá

I helped him write the application and it took him ten minutes.

Με βοήθησε πολύ στα μαθηματικά όταν ήμουν στο γυμνάσιο.

me voíthise polí sta mathimatiká ótan ímun sto yimnásio

He helped me a lot with maths when I was at secondary school.

Βοήθα με λίγο με το τραπέζι, δεν το κουνάω μόνος μου.

voítha me lígho me to trapézi, dhen to kunáo mónos mu

Give me a hand with the table, I can't shift it on my own.

σε and με overlap more than they compete. A standing domain — school subjects, housework, paperwork — prefers σε: στα μαθηματικά, στις δουλειές του σπιτιού, στα χαρτιά. One bounded job prefers με: με τις βαλίτσες, με το τραπέζι, με τη μετακόμιση. Neither is wrong on the other's ground — βοήθησέ με με τα μαθηματικά is ordinary Greek too. And when the help is aimed at an action rather than a thing, neither preposition is used: the clause hangs off να and conjugates for the person doing the action, which is how Greek does "help me do" — the frame is on να after modal verbs.

💡

English "help to somebody" is the single commonest error here, and it produces ×βοηθάω σε κάποιον — a preposition where Greek wants nothing at all. There is no genitive option either. The temptation is historically respectable — ancient βοηθῶ governed the dative, and the genitive is what inherited most of the old dative's work — but the modern verb did not follow, and ×Του βοήθησα has no reading at all. The person is τον, την, σε, με, μας, flat accusative, every time; the accusative object page has the wider pattern.

βοηθάει να — the sentence with no subject

Greek can leave βοηθάει with no subject and no object, in which case it means "it helps to" — a general recommendation, not a report about anybody. It is very common, and the trap for English speakers is the complementiser: never ότι, and never a bare verb. να offers something up as a practice worth adopting; που points at what is already going on — how you tell somebody their approach is failing.

Βοηθάει πολύ να διαβάζεις φωναχτά όταν μαθαίνεις μια γλώσσα.

voithái polí na dhiavázis fonachtá ótan mathénis mia ghlósa

It helps a lot to read aloud when you're learning a language.

Δεν βοηθάει καθόλου που της το λες κάθε μέρα.

dhen voithái kathólu pu tis to les káthe méra

Telling her every day isn't helping at all.

Η φασαρία δεν βοηθάει, θα βγω έξω να τηλεφωνήσω.

i fasaría dhen voithái, tha vgho ékso na tilefoníso

The noise isn't helping — I'll go outside to make the call.

The mediopassive is real but narrow. βοηθιέμαι and the more formal βοηθούμαι both exist, and both take an ordinary agent — βοηθιέται από την αδερφή της — but the commonest use by far is the reciprocal plural: people who help one another, for which Greek also keeps the purpose-built αλληλοβοηθιούνται. For one person being helped, an active sentence is likelier. The adjective the root does supply in everyday use is the negative αβοήθητος — left with nobody to help.

Στην πολυκατοικία βοηθιούνται όλοι όταν χαλάσει κάτι.

stin polikatikía voithiúnde óli ótan chalási káti

In our block everyone helps everyone else when something breaks.

Set phrases

Phrase	Meaning
Βοήθεια!	Help! — the noun, not the verb
βοηθάω στο σπίτι	help out around the house
με βοήθησες πολύ	you've been a great help
δεν βοηθάει σε τίποτα	it doesn't help in the slightest
με τη βοήθειά σου	with your help — note the second accent
Ο Θεός να σε βοηθάει	God help you — as a blessing or a warning
Θεός βοηθός	God be with us — said before starting something hard

Key Takeaways

βοηθάω/βοηθώ · βοηθούσα · βοήθησα · βοηθήσω · βοήθα / βοήθησε · έχω βοηθήσει · βοηθώντας.
The person is a bare accusative. No preposition, no genitive: ×βοηθάω σε κάποιον, ×Του βοήθησα.
σε for a standing field, με for one bounded job — they overlap — and να for the action you help somebody carry out.
Βοηθάει να… with no subject means "it helps to"; δεν βοηθάει που… points at a real situation. Never ότι.
The mediopassive is narrow — commonest as the reciprocal βοηθιούνται / αλληλοβοηθιούνται; the live adjective is αβοήθητος.

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