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Which of the following is the correct sentence to ask a person if he is okay to help me? (The help here is, asking doubts in another language.)

  1. I will be needing your help, if it is okay with you.

  2. I will be needing your help, if it is okay for you.

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  • @Jasper thanks for the correction! It looks more clean now!
    – abhilash
    Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 5:47

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1) Is definitely most common in common usage. 'Okay with' most commonly confirms politely that the person is willing to/comfortable with helping.

'Okay to' might imply that there was some reason the other person might not be in a state where they are able to help, e.g. (To a sick person), "I will need your help if you are okay (well enough) to help". 'Okay for' can be used to refer to something more specific, e.g. "I will need your help if (some date/time) is okay for you".

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With implies that the person you want to provide help can decide or control on his/her own if he/she is okay with helping or not.

For implies that the help this person can provide is controlled by something else and you are checking if it's okay for them to help. It may not be okay, e.g., if they are busy or occupied and by saying this you acknowledge that. You may prefer to say this if you are asking someone who is supposed to be able to help you, but may be busy or occupied with something.

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I only hear "with" used in such a sentence.

You can also say

... if you are okay with it.

The "with you" is an adjectival clause linked to the "it" (similar to how "with it" is linked to the "you" in my example). The "okay" is an adjective here, I think.

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  • I heard that people also use "if that's okay with you" commonly. Instead of "if it's okay with you".
    – abhilash
    Commented Aug 31, 2015 at 5:45

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