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I'm studying about Infinitive topic. The website tells me that some element in this sentence is dropped. I think the full sentence is "He helped me write the Program" but I don't understand the rule that is used to drop some element in the sentence.

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    Do you mean: I'm studying use of the infinitive? What website tells you that, please?
    – Lambie
    Oct 12, 2018 at 17:28
  • Sorry for my terrible English 555. Yes,that's right. and the website is englishplus.com/grammar/00000078.htm
    – Martuaii
    Oct 13, 2018 at 2:43

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In constructions involving the verb to help, it's perfectly natural (but not obligatory) to "delete" the infinitive marker to before the relevant verb identifying the action for which assistance was provided...

He helped me [to] write the program

There's more background on this use of to help [someone] [to] do something in the ELU question What is the correct way to use infinitive after the verb “help”: with or without “to”? (which was asked some years before this ELL site was created).

I'd be interested to know if anyone can come up with any alternative verbs instead of write above that would both make reasonable sense and either require or disallow the infinitive marker to.

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  • Is it possible to drop either "me" and "to" in the sentence?
    – Martuaii
    Oct 14, 2018 at 16:33
  • Yes, you could omit me as well as or intead of to. But that's not exactly the same as "deleting" the "100% predictable" repetition of to, since the speaker might have meant, for example, He helped Mary write the program. In which case he still might not bother mentioning Mary by name, if that was obviously contextually what was meant, or if it was totally irrelevant who received assistance.
    – FumbleFingers
    Oct 14, 2018 at 16:58

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