Learn English – Help me out VS Help me

sentence-meaningsentence-usage

I don't understand the difference between the following two sentences and grammatical explanation. Why we use out here and also here "Ask her out for a dance.
Thanks.

  1. Help him

  2. Help him out

Best Answer

"Ask out" is an idiomatic term for asking someone on a date. "Help out" is also idiomatic, but they are not related. The 'out' in "ask out" means to go out(side), to go somewhere on a date.

"Help out" has more in common with "work out", which can mean to solve a problem. "Help out" means that you contribute to achieving something.

For example, if you "help out with the dishes" that would mean you work alongside someone else to do the dishes. However, if you helped out by doing the dishes, it could mean that you do the dishes alone but that helps achieve some other overall goal such as cleaning the entire kitchen.

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