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 muebles = I'll help you move the furniture
- Gracias por ayudarme ayer = Thank 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 haga = If you don't help yourself, don't expect anyone else to
- Tienes que ayudarte más en la cocina = You 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 difíciles = The two brothers always help each other in difficult moments
- En este barrio nos ayudamos mucho = In 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 traducción = She used a dictionary to finish the translation
- Nos ayudamos de la tecnología para resolver el problema = We made use of technology to solve the problem