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helfen

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German hëlfen, from Old High German helfan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb-, *ḱelp-. Cognate with Low German helpen, Dutch helpen, English help, Danish hjælpe, Norwegian Bokmål hjelpe.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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helfen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present hilft, past tense half, past participle geholfen, past subjunctive hülfe, auxiliary haben)

  1. [with dative] to help (someone); to assist; to aid [with bei (+ dative) ‘with’]
    Ich habe ihnen bei der Reparatur des Wagens geholfen.
    I helped them with the repair of the car.
    Dieses Mittel hilft dabei, Probleme beim Wasserlassen und Inkontinenz zu reduzieren.
    This product helps to reduce urinary problems and incontinence.
    Hat der Krieg diese drei Hauptschäden bekämpfen helfen?
    Did the war help combat these three main harms?

Usage notes

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  • When used as a catenative verb, helfen can be either take zu + infinitive or the bare infinitive.
  • Similarly as in modal verbs like müssen and können, when used with a bare infinitive, the past participle geholfen can be replaced by the infinitive helfen (as shown in the third example), but this phenomenon does not occur unless in obsolete or archaic speech.

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Middle High German

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old High German helfan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpaną. Cognate with Middle Low German helpen, Middle Dutch helpen, and Middle English helpen.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (before 13th CE) /ˈhɛlfən/

Verb

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hëlfen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present hilfet, past tense half, past participle geholfen, past subjunctive hülfe, auxiliary hān)

  1. to help
    Wer hülfe danne mir?Who would then help me?

Conjugation

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Descendants

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  • Central Franconian: hellepe
  • Cimbrian: hölfan
  • German: helfen
  • Luxembourgish: hëllefen
  • Yiddish: העלפֿן (helfn)

References

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  • Benecke, Georg Friedrich, Müller, Wilhelm, Zarncke, Friedrich (1863) “helfen”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch: mit Benutzung des Nachlasses von Benecke, Stuttgart: S. Hirzel

Welsh

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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helfen

  1. h-prothesized form of elfen

Mutation

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Mutated forms of elfen
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
elfen unchanged unchanged helfen

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.