Help Collocation for IELTS: A List to Boost Your Score

Kasturika Samanta

10 min read

Updated On Oct 15, 2025

Master help collocations for IELTS and elevate your writing and speaking skills to boost your band score. This blog provides meanings, examples, and practice activities to help you boost precision, fluency, and IELTS vocabulary for band 7–8 success.

Lists of Help Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score
Notes
Help Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises
Help Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

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Collocations with help allow you to express support, assistance, and cooperation more naturally. For instance, instead of repeating ‘give help’, native speakers use help collocations like ‘offer help’ or ‘provide assistance’. Similarly, using expressions like ‘in dire need of help’ or ‘ask for professional help’ can make your IELTS Writing and Speaking responses more fluent and sophisticated.

In this blog, we will explore different help collocation for IELTS, including ‘Verb + Help’, ‘Types and ways of asking for help’, ‘Adjective + Help’, and prepositional expressions with practical examples to show you exactly how to use them.

Lists of Help Collocations for IELTS to Boost Your Score

In the IELTS exam, the word ‘help’ and its collocations hold a significant place. Whether you are describing how governments help reduce pollution, how teachers help students improve, or how technology helps us communicate, this little word can transform your sentence from ordinary to impactful. However, they have to be used correctly.

Therefore, we will explore lists of the top important collocations for IELTS related to help in the tables below.

Verb + Help Collocations

These combinations describe actions related to helping or receiving help. They’re common in IELTS Writing Task 2 (when discussing social issues, education, or government aid) and Speaking (when describing support systems or teamwork).

Verb + Help	Meaning	Example Sentence
Ask for help/Ask someone for help	request assistance	Many students hesitate to ask for help when struggling with assignments.
Appreciate help	be thankful for support	I really appreciate the help my teacher gave me before the IELTS test.
Offer help	volunteer to assist someone	Governments should offer help to unemployed citizens.
Get help	receive assistance	People with mental health issues must get help from professionals.
Seek help	try to find support or advice	Victims of bullying are encouraged to seek help from authorities.
Use help	benefit from assistance	She used help from an online tutor to improve her writing skills.
Need help	require assistance	Children in poor communities need help to access education.
Provide help	give assistance to someone	NGOs provide help to those affected by natural disasters.
Accept help	agree to receive assistance	Some people find it difficult to accept help due to pride.
Refuse help	decline assistance offered	He refused help, wanting to solve the problem independently.
Offer to help	volunteer directly	I offered to help my friend prepare for the IELTS exam.
Give help	provide assistance (less formal)	Parents often give help with homework.
Get help with	receive assistance related to something	She got help with her visa application process.

Ways of Asking for Help

Sometimes, we need to appeal or plead for help more formally. These nouns describe the different forms or manners of seeking assistance, perfect for essays on social issues, healthcare, and humanitarian aid and boosting your IELTS vocabulary.

Ways of Asking for Help	Meaning	Example Sentence
Appeal for help	a serious or formal request for aid	The organization made an appeal for help after the flood.
Plea for help	an emotional or urgent request	The mother’s plea for help moved the local community.
Attempt to get help	effort made to obtain assistance	Despite several attempts to get help, no support was received.
Call for help	a cry or signal for assistance	Emergency services responded to a call for help.
Request for help	a formal or polite ask	He submitted a written request for help to the university office.
Cry for help	emotional or desperate signal	His behavior was actually a silent cry for help.
Application for help	a formal written appeal	Victims were required to submit an application for help online.
Search for help	looking for available assistance	Many refugees are still in search of help and shelter.
Urgent need for help	a situation requiring immediate support	The crisis created an urgent need for help from international agencies.

Common Adjective Collocations with ‘Help’

Adjectives describe the type, quality, or degree of help. Using the right one allows you to sound precise and contextually appropriate, which is a vital skill for high-scoring IELTS responses.

Adjective + Help	Meaning	Example Sentence
Extra help	additional support	Slow learners often need extra help from teachers.
Great help	very useful assistance	Your guidance was a great help in my preparation.
Invaluable help	extremely helpful; cannot be valued	The mentor’s feedback was an invaluable help before the test.
Financial help	monetary assistance	Many students rely on financial help to study abroad.
Professional help	expert or specialized assistance	People with depression should seek professional help.
Individual help	one-on-one assistance	The tutor provided individual help to each student.
Medical help	health-related assistance	Immediate medical help was required after the accident.
Technical help	assistance related to technology	Candidates may require technical help during computer-based tests.
Emotional help	support in coping with stress	Friends can provide emotional help during difficult times.
Timely help	assistance given at the right time	Timely help can prevent small problems from becoming major ones.
Moral help	encouragement or psychological support	Family members often provide moral help before major exams.
Government help	assistance provided by authorities	Farmers received government help after the drought.
Immediate help	urgent or instant assistance	The injured passenger needed immediate help.

Expressions with Prepositions

Prepositional expressions with ‘help’ make your English sound more fluent and idiomatic. They often appear in IELTS Speaking when describing needs, situations, or forms of support.

Expression	Meaning	Example Sentence
In dire need of help	in urgent or desperate need of assistance	Many refugees are in dire need of help after the disaster.
With the help of	using assistance or resources	He completed the project with the help of online tutorials.
In need of help	requiring assistance	Elderly people in rural areas are in need of help.
By the help of	through the assistance of (formal)	By the help of technology, education has become more accessible.
Without help	without receiving assistance	He managed to fix the problem without help.
Under the help of	supported by (less common but formal)	Under the help of experienced staff, the program succeeded.
Thanks to the help of	because of the assistance provided	Thanks to the help of my mentor, I achieved a Band 8.
In great need of help	desperately requiring aid	Poor families are in great need of help due to inflation.
Rely on help from	depend on assistance provided by someone	Many local schools rely on help from volunteers.

Notes

Note the expression ‘to manage something with the help of’:
- I managed to make myself understood with the help of my Spanish phrase book.
Note this common expression:
- The map he drew wasn’t much help. I still got lost!
- Come on! You’re not much help!
Note how we offer to help:
- Let me know if I can be of any help to you.
- Would you like some help with the washing up?
Note the more formal collocation:
- The CID enlisted the help of a graphologist, an expert on handwriting.
In the UK a ‘home help’ is somebody who helps the elderly or disabled with their housework.
A ‘helpline’ is a telephone number you can ring for advice or information.

Help Collocation for IELTS: Practice Exercises

The following exercises are designed to help you understand and use help collocations for IELTS. So, take up the exercises one by one and refer to the answer key below once you complete them.

Exercise A: Use the correct form of these verbs.

ask for appreciate offer get

seek use need provide

Thanks for everything you’ve done for my parents. They really __________ all your help.
My car broke down in the city centre and I tried to push it to the side of the road. There were lots of people standing watching, and not one of them __________ any help whatsoever.
Do you need any help with the cooking? > No, but I could __________ some help with the washing up if you’re not too busy.
I wouldn’t normally __________ your help, but the fact is I’m desperate. Could I use your phone? Ours is out of order and I don’t have a mobile.
Look! That old lady has collapsed. Go and __________ help. There’s a policeman over there.
Initially he turned to his family for help in dealing with his depression, but he was eventually forced to __________ psychiatric help.
In the current emergency, we __________ all the help we can get.
The Samaritans are an organisation which __________ telephone help to people who are suicidal.

Exercise B: Use the following adjectives in these sentences.

extra great invaluable

financial professional individual

My mother was a __________ help to me while my wife was in hospital having our third child.
We received __________ help from many people while writing this book. We couldn’t have completed it without their contributions.
If you suffer from depression, it’s best to get __________ help. First, talk to your doctor.
I passed my mathematics exam, thanks to the __________ help my dad gave me in the evenings.
Most teachers simply don’t have the time to give some students the _____________ help they need.
A lot of older people do without things rather than ask for __________ help.

Exercise C: Match the two halves of these sentences.

It is a well-known fact that
We were surprised by the number of volunteers who responded to
We are grateful to all those parents who answered
A five-year-old girl has gone missing. Her parents have made

a our appeal for help with disabled children.

b a desperate plea to the public for help in finding her.

c a suicide attempt is often a cry for help.

d our call for help in raising funds for the school.

Exercise D: Match the two halves of the sentences.

The survivors of the earthquake are
Our confidential telephone lines are
These flowers are
It’s now three days since the disaster struck and

a a token of my appreciation for all your help.

b in dire need of help. The government must get food and medicine to them quickly.

c offers of help are flowing in from all over the world.

d a tremendous source of help to those people who are depressed and lonely.

Explore our Vocabulary for IELTS to boost your IELTS vocabulary!

Help Collocations Answer Keys for Practice Exercises

Ex A:

1 appreciate 2. offered 3. use 4. ask for 5. get

6 seek 7 need 8. provides

Ex B:

great 2. invaluable 3. professional 4. extra 5. individual 6. financial

Ex C: 1-c 2-a 3-d 4-b

Ex D: 1-b 2-d 3-a 4-c

To conclude, the word ‘help’ and its collocations help in expressing compassion, cooperation, and problem-solving more naturally. Master the given help collocations for IELTS and handle the key themes in IELTS topics about society, education, and personal experiences. So, the next time you write or speak, remember: using natural collocations doesn’t just help your communication, it helps your IELTS band score soar.

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