Learn English – Which one is better?: Do you need a/any/some help

connotationsdeterminersword-choice

How is the nuance of each one?

  1. Do you need help?
  2. Do you need a help?
  3. Do you need any help?
  4. Do you need some help?
  5. May I help you?

And which one should I use to offer some strangers my help in stations etc.?

Best Answer

  1. Do you need help?

This is used for directly asking if a person needs help without thinking whether the person actually needs help or not.

  1. Do you need a help?

This is not grammatical. "Help" is not a countable thing, so an article "a" shouldn't be used. (I learned this from @user3169)

  1. Do you need any help?

This is used for offering help when an asker is not quite sure if a person being asked actually needs help.

  1. Do you need some help?

This is used for offering help when an asker is pretty sure that a person being asked needs help.

  1. May I help you?

This is kind of formal, something you would be asked by a staff at some store or by an operator of some company on the phone.

It's probably not a matter of one being better than the other. I'm sure native speakers are choosing which one to use intuitively (even though I'm not 100% confident in the definitions I gave you in my answer...)

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