You're cleaning the kitchen. Your
wife isn't helping you. You want to ask her to help, but you'd like to ask
politely so that you don't start a fight. You ask this.
Baby, would you mind giving me a
hand with this?
Baby
Words like "baby",
"sweetheart", "darling", and "dear" are sometimes
used between couples in place of each other's names:
Come here, baby.
Hello, darling. How was your day?
These words are called "terms
of affection". It can sound more sweet and loving to use these words than
to call someone by name.
Sometimes people use these words for
someone who they're not in a close relationship with, but those are tricky
cases. For the most part, you should only use terms of affection for someone
like a lover, spouse, or sometimes for your child.
would you mind (doing something)
"Would you mind ___ing?"
is a good way to politely ask for something that isn't too much trouble for the
other person. Some more examples:
Would you mind passing me that
bottle over there?
Would you mind watching my bag for a
few minutes?
Would you mind sending me a list of
everyone who's coming?
give (someone) a hand with (something)
"Give (someone) a hand"
means to help someone. The word "help" has a wide meaning. It can be
used to describe helping someone with a small problem, or with a serious
emergency. So when you're asking for help, it's important to express how
serious the problem is. For big emergencies, you just yell:
Help!
For smaller but still serious
problems, you can ask:
Can you help me?
And for small problems that aren't
an emergency, you ask:
Can you give me a hand?