帮助
to help; help
bāngzhù
What does 帮助 mean?
帮助 (bāngzhù) means 'to help' or, as a noun, 'help / assistance.' It is one of the most useful HSK 2 verbs and works in a clean pattern: SUBJECT + 帮助 + PERSON + (VERB PHRASE) — 我帮助他学中文 ('I help him study Chinese'). Two things English speakers should know. First, 帮助 is the slightly fuller, more formal sibling of 帮 (bāng) and 帮忙 (bāngmáng): in casual speech a friend would say 你能帮我吗？ ('can you help me?'
); a teacher writing a thank-you note would more likely use 帮助. Second, unlike English 'help,' 帮助 does not naturally take an infinitive — say 帮助我搬东西 ('help me move stuff'), not 'help me to move stuff' word-for-word. As a noun, 帮助 takes 给 ('give'): 给我很大的帮助 ('gave me a lot of help'). Also commonly seen with
Character breakdown
to help; gang / group
to assist; aid
Memory hook: Both characters mean 'help' on their own — 帮助 is just two synonyms stacked, the way English doubles up in 'help and assist.'
Example sentences
我可以帮助你。
Wǒ kěyǐ bāngzhù nǐ.
I can help you.
neutral
他常常帮助同学。
Tā chángcháng bāngzhù tóngxué.
He often helps his classmates.
neutral
谢谢您的帮助。
Xièxie nín de bāngzhù.
Thank you for your help.
polite
我们应该互相帮助。
Wǒmen yīnggāi hùxiāng bāngzhù.
We should help each other.
written
这本书对我帮助很大。
Zhè běn shū duì wǒ bāngzhù hěn dà.
This book has been a great help to me.
neutral
Common phrases with 帮助
Hear it in real Fluentide episodes
帮助 appears in 2 podcast episodes at natural native speed, with full Chinese script, pinyin, and line-by-line English translation.
Synonyms
帮 is the casual, single-character version. Use 帮 in spoken Chinese with friends (你帮我一下 'help me out a sec'). Use 帮助 in writing or polite/formal contexts.
Don't confuse 帮助 with
帮忙 means 'to lend a hand / do a favor' but its grammar is different: you can't say 帮忙我, you say 帮我的忙. 帮助 takes the person directly: 帮助我. Pick the wrong grammar and you'll sound awkward.
帮 alone is fine in casual speech (帮我看看 'take a look for me'). 帮助 is the fuller, more written form. Same root meaning, different register.