help sb do / doing / to do

[ibex]

Hi,

as far as I know, both the forms "to help sb. do sth." and "to help sb. doing sth." are fine. Is there any difference in meaning resp. in "feeling" or are they used equally? Furthermore, is it also correct to say "to help sb. to do sth.", as in the fixed phrase "to help sb. to escape"?

Thank you!
ibex

[LingoatB]

Hi ibex,

[highlight=#NaNffff]The form "help s.b. doing s.t." is not correct.[/highlight]

The forms that are the most common are..
"help s.b. do s.t." "help s.b. TO do s.t." are the same in meaning.

You can also say "help s.b. WITH VERBing" (I helped him with organizing the files.)

[ibex]

Thanks for your answer! I'm puzzled, though, because I thought help sb doing sth was perfectly alright. I might be wrong, of course, but I looked it up before I asked: http://www.dict.cc/?s=help+sb+doing

[LingoatB]

Interesting site! Still, I've never seen that "help s.b. VERBing" before or seen it presented in grammar books. I speak AmEng, so perhaps there's a variation I'm not aware of.

[Delfino]

http://www.dict.cc/?s=help+sb+doing

A click on i displays the source and comment of this entry:

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