Grammar – Does ‘Help’ Require an -ing Form?

grammarverbs

A native English-speaker corrected my "help observing" with "help observe" in a written text:

I provide a lens to help you observing the ants.

I cannot really see the rationale, as I would expect an action verb after "help".
Can you please help me understand/understanding why this is not the case?

Best Answer

After the verb help , we can use

either a bare infinitive (infinitive without 'to') : "I provide a lens to help you observe the ants."

or a 'to' infinitive (infinitive with 'to') : "I provide a lens to help you to observe the ants."

But we don't use present participle after it.

"I provide a lens to help you observing the ants." (incorrect)

If you want to use ‘observing‘ as a noun (gerund), you can use it as an object of a preposition :

"I provide a lens to help you in / with observing the ants."

Related Topic