When to use it
Use it at the airport when you cannot find your boarding gate.
“Can you help me find my gate?” — The sentence in English
"Can you help me find my gate?" uses "help" with the object "me" and then "find" without "to".
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun
- help
- verbhelp · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- me
- pronounobject pronoun
- find
- verbfind · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after a modal or after "help me"
- my
- determinerpossessive determiner
- gate
- nounnoun; the boarding gate at an airport
“Können Sie mir helfen, mein Gate zu finden?” — The sentence in German
"Können Sie mir helfen, mein Gate zu finden?" uses "mir" because "helfen" takes the dative. The second verb comes after a comma with "zu": "…zu finden".
- Können
- auxiliary verbkönnen · tense: present · mood: indicative · person: third · number: plural (polite Sie) · "can" with the polite Sie
- Sie
- pronounpolite "you"
- mir
- pronoundative of "ich"; "helfen" takes the dative
- helfen
- verbhelfen · form: infinitive · "to help"
- mein
- determinerpossessive: "my"
- Gate
- nounneuter noun borrowed from English: "gate"
- zu
- particle"to" before an infinitive
- finden
- verbfinden · form: infinitive · "to find"
English × German: What changes from one language to the other
English says "help me find"; German says "mir helfen, … zu finden", with the dative, a comma and "zu". German has borrowed the word "Gate" from English.
Example conversation
— Können Sie mir helfen, mein Gate zu finden?
— Can you help me find my gate?
— Natürlich. Darf ich Ihre Bordkarte sehen?
— Of course. May I see your boarding pass?