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He helped creatED

English translation: he helped create/to create

17:12 Sep 6, 2011
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase: He helped creatED
is this correct? (quite a few hits in google)
Michael Kislov
Russian Federation
Local time: 15:05
Selected answer:he helped create/to create
Explanation:
''He helped created'' is gramatically incorrect.


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Note added at 5 mins (2011-09-06 17:17:12 GMT)
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I am surprised to see so many examples of this on Google.
Selected response from:

Claire Nolan
Local time: 08:05
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +7He helped create / He helped to create
Stephen D
3 +4he helped create/to create
Claire Nolan


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +4
he helped created
he helped create/to create


Explanation:
''He helped created'' is gramatically incorrect.


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Note added at 5 mins (2011-09-06 17:17:12 GMT)
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I am surprised to see so many examples of this on Google.

Claire Nolan
Local time: 08:05
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Sheila Wilson: "he helped", "he created", "he helped (to) create" - whatever else you find on Google
1 min
  -> Thanks, Sheila.

agree  Helen Genevier
6 mins
  -> Thanks!

agree  Tony M: Yes, I'm afraid quite simply an error!
9 mins
  -> Oh, how Google can get one in trouble (spoken from experience)!

agree  amarpaul
8 hrs
  -> Thanks!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

3 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
he helped created
He helped create / He helped to create


Explanation:
To help sb to do st - implies helping them (because they are not as adept as you)

To help sb do st - implies that they may know very well how to do it, but they need a second pair of hands (e.g. because there's lots of work)

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Note added at 5 mins (2011-09-06 17:17:30 GMT)
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It's probable that the person who wrote the text wrote "He created" and then changed their mind and decided to write "He helped to create" but forgot to change "created" to "create".

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Note added at 18 mins (2011-09-06 17:30:35 GMT)
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The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, revised third edition, Oxford
UP, 1996

4 help and the use of the to-infinitive.

I have set down elsewhere (Points of View, 1992) a description of the
way in which the competing types 'he helped me dig out my driveway'/
he helped me to dig out my driveway' developed from the ME period
onwards. Many writers, including Shakespeare and Marlowe, allowed the
verb help to be followed by either a plain infinitive (one without the
particle to) or by a to-infinitive.

At the present time the distribution of the two types cannot be
determined with any certainty but the general pattern seems to be
something like this:

(a) The construction with the to-infinitive appears to be the more
usual one in Britain:

...where he helped to look after German prisoners of war -- Brit. Med.
Journal, 1986
...a well-designed phonics system helps most children to read well --
Daily Tel., 1987.


But the construction with a plain infinitive also occurs:

Our every deed must help make us acceptable-Times, 1986;
It helped silence critics on the party left-K. O. Morgan, 1987.

It is not altogether clear what governs the choice.


(b) By contrast, in AmE and also in other forms of overseas English,
the form with the plain infinitive predominates.

Examples:

I had helped her carry it to her bedroom-G. Keillor, 1986 (US)
...in the hope that this may help provoke a transformation-New Yorker,
1986
Mandy helped him choose something for Claire-C. K. Stead, 1986 (NZ)
the labourers' training school he helped create-Highveld Style, 1986
(SAfr.)
When he is done he instructs Ria to help him pull the wire tight-Susan
Johnson, 1990 (Aust.).

But the construction with a to-infinitive is also found in these areas
often enough:

It may help us to conceive of their predicament if we imagine... -
Daedalus, 1986 (US)
The levees were helping to aggravate the problem they were meant to
solve-New Yorker, 1987.

(c) One governing factor, past and present, and in all present-day
varieties of English, is a natural reluctance to adopt the sentence to
help + a to-infinitive, that is, to 'repeat to. The construction does
occur: (she allowed Pearl to help her to stack up her hair.- I.
Murdoch, 1983). but it is not common.

In this respect it is noteworthy that Shakespeare's examples of help +
plain infinitive occur only when the verb help is itself preceded by
the particle to. It is reluctance to repeat “to” may partially account
for some of the American and Antipodean occurrences of the
construction with the plain infinitive:

One of my housemates...offered to help me move in-New Yorker, 1986
...she had moved heaven and earth to help me win the Scholarship to
Oxford-the athlete Jack Lovelock, as reported in a recent biography.

But this is not certain.

Stephen D
Local time: 13:05
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Claire Nolan: I agree with your reasoning, Steve.
3 mins
  -> Thanks, Clain. It looks like we got there at the same time! :)

agree  Helen Genevier
5 mins
  -> Thanks, Helen

agree  Tony M: Yes, I'm afraid quite simply an error!
9 mins
  -> Thanks, Tony

agree  Sheila Wilson: According to the EFL teacher's bible "Practical English Usage" by Swan, the only difference is that in British English the infinitive without "to" is a little more informal // In that case, I agree :-)
10 mins
  -> Thanks, Sheila. I've expanded my answer to include other explanations of usage in BE and American English.

agree  Jack Doughty
55 mins
  -> Thanks, Jack

agree  Liz Dexter (was Broomfield)
2 hrs
  -> Thanks, Liz

agree  amarpaul
8 hrs
  -> Thanks, amarpaul
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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