He assisted in the editing of the movie.
He assisted with the editing of the movie.
He assisted at the editing of the movie.
Is "assist in" the same as "assist with"? Can I always substitute the one where the other is used, or is there a difference in meaning?
(I think "assist at" refers to a place where a person is assisting, as in "He assisted at the place where the editing was taking place".)
When I use Google to look for the definition, it gives me the following as the main definition:
help (someone), typically by doing a share of the work
And gives two example sentences:
"a senior academic would assist him in his work"
and, after a bullet point with the following extra explanation:
- help by providing money or information.
"they were assisting police with their inquiries"
So is the distinction between in and with really tied to the definitions above, or are these example sentences just a coincidence?