How do you say can I help you in Italian?
Posso aiutarti?
| Words you should know | Potere (can) + aiutare (to help) |
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re familiar with |
| When NOT to use this | With strangers (doh!) and groups |
Posso aiutarti?
Can I help you?
If you want to offer your help to a stranger, your boss at work or someone you need to show respect to, you will need to use the formal “you” pronoun. We’ll see that in the next paragraph.
Posso aiutarla?
| When to use this | With 1 person you’re NOT familiar with |
| When NOT to use this | With friends, family and groups |
Posso aiutarla?
Can I help you?
So if your boss falls and scrapes their knee, you will ask posso aiutarLA?.
If your friend needs help, you will ask them posso aiutarTI?.
You will often hear this in shops:
Come posso aiutarla?
How can I help you?
If you use the informal you with your boss or a stranger, it may sound weird. You may even sound rude, so be careful not to confuse the two forms!
Posso aiutarvi?
| When to use this | With a group of people |
| When NOT to use this | With strangers (doh!) and 1 person at a time |
Posso aiutarvi?
Can I help you? (plural)
If you see a couple needing help, ask posso aiutarVI? as in this way you will address both people or all people in a given group.
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How do you say “Let me help you!”? Do you use “lasciare”? Translator apps give the phrase “lasci che l’aiuti” which I don’t really understand. Why is it “aiuti”? Thank you.
Hi Emily, there are different translations for this sentence depending on who you are talking to.
Lascia che ti aiuti – informal (your friend, your brother, etc.)
Lasciate che vi aiuti – plural, both formal and informal
Lasci che l’aiuti – polite (your boss, a clerk, etc.)
As for “aiuti”, it’s because in this type of sentence structure “lasciare che…”, the verb must be conjugated in the subjunctive mood.
The first-person present subjunctive for “aiutare” is che io aiuti. This is why we say lascia che ti aiuti!
Other examples with “lasciare che” using the subjunctive case:
Lascia che porti lui la valigia – Let him carry the suitcase (portare, “che io porti”)
Lasciate che Marta pulisca la cucina da sola – Let Marta clean the kitchen alone (pulire, “che lei pulisca”)
Lasci che sia io a pagare il conto – Let me be the one to pay the bill (essere, “che io sia”)
Hope this helps!