Chunk: lend a hand
Meaning & Usage
Lend a hand means to offer practical help or physical assistance with a task, workload, or difficulty. Grammatically, it functions ditransitively (lend someone a hand) or with complement prepositional phrases (lend a hand with something / lend a hand doing something). As an idiomatic extension of lend, it embodies the outward vector of temporary support (giving out assistance).
🧲 Common Collocates
- Syntactic Patterns: lend someone a hand, lend a hand with [task/noun], lend a hand doing [gerund], be happy to lend a hand, be willing to lend a hand, ask someone to lend a hand.
- Characteristic Contexts: Moving heavy objects, collaborative workplace tasks, domestic chores, emergency team support, community volunteering.
- Boundary Contrast: Represents an outward offer or request for help ("Could you lend me a hand?"). It cannot be framed with borrow (❌ "Could you borrow me a hand?").
💬 Contextual Examples
- Could you lend a hand moving these filing cabinets into the storage room?
- Whenever the logistics center faced end-of-quarter surges, administrative personnel were asked to lend a hand on the packing line.
- She was always ready to lend a hand with community cleanup initiatives on weekends.
🎴 Interactive Web Practice
Practice 1: If you have a free minute, could you lend me a ______ with these delivery boxes?
Answer:
hand Practice 2: Several volunteers arrived early to lend a hand ______ setting up the audio equipment for the seminar.
Answer:
with (or in) Practice 3: ❌ Could you borrow me a hand with this table? is ungrammatical; the correct outward verb is: "Could you ______ me a hand with this table?"
Answer:
lend 🔗 Knowledge Base Connections
- 🔑 Parent Node: Lend
- ⚖️ Related Discrimination: borrow-vs-lend