ayudar
to help
To help or assist someone, a direct extension of the noun ayuda
Encoding Strategies:
linguistic
ayuda
help / aid
+
-ar
verb suffix
Ayudar means to help and is simply the noun ayuda0 (help0) turned into a verb1 with -ar1.
ayudar
to help, to aid, to assist
To give help to someone — exactly what the noun ayuda means, but as an action.
Te ayudo a mover los mueblesI'll help you move the furniture
Gracias por ayudarme ayerThank you for helping me yesterday
ayudarse
to help oneself (reflexive)
To give help to yourself — the same idea turned inward.
Si no te ayudas tú mismo, no esperes que otro lo hagaIf you don't help yourself, don't expect anyone else to
Tienes que ayudarte más en la cocinaYou need to help yourself more in the kitchen
to help each other, to help one another (reciprocal)
When two or more people each give help to the other — the reflexive turned outward.
Los dos hermanos siempre se ayudan en los momentos difícilesThe two brothers always help each other in difficult moments
En este barrio nos ayudamos muchoIn this neighborhood we help one another a lot
ayudarse de
to use, to make use of
To help yourself from a source — the "de" marks the origin of the help, the thing you're drawing from.
Se ayudó de un diccionario para terminar la traducciónShe used a dictionary to finish the translation
Nos ayudamos de la tecnología para resolver el problemaWe made use of technology to solve the problem