Events & Promotions
|
|
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.
Customized
for You
Track
Your Progress
Practice
Pays
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Nov 1912:30 PM EST
-01:30 PM EST
Learn how Keshav, a Chartered Accountant, scored an impressive 705 on GMAT in just 30 days with GMATWhiz's expert guidance. In this video, he shares preparation tips and strategies that worked for him, including the mock, time management, and more
Nov 1811:00 AM PST
-12:00 PM PST
Join us in a live GMAT practice session and solve 30 challenging GMAT questions with other test takers in timed conditions, covering GMAT Quant, Data Sufficiency, Data Insights, Reading Comprehension, and Critical Reasoning questions.
Nov 2001:30 PM EST
-02:30 PM IST
Learn how Kamakshi achieved a GMAT 675 with an impressive 96th %ile in Data Insights. Discover the unique methods and exam strategies that helped her excel in DI along with other sections for a balanced and high score.
Nov 2211:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Do RC/MSR passages scare you? e-GMAT is conducting a masterclass to help you learn – Learn effective reading strategies Tackle difficult RC & MSR with confidence Excel in timed test environment- Nov 23
11:00 AM IST
-01:00 PM IST
Attend this free GMAT Algebra Webinar and learn how to master the most challenging Inequalities and Absolute Value problems with ease. 
Nov 2407:00 PM PST
-08:00 PM PST
Full-length FE mock with insightful analytics, weakness diagnosis, and video explanations!
Nov 2510:00 AM EST
-11:00 AM EST
Prefer video-based learning? The Target Test Prep OnDemand course is a one-of-a-kind video masterclass featuring 400 hours of lecture-style teaching by Scott Woodbury-Stewart, founder of Target Test Prep and one of the most accomplished GMAT instructors.
07 Jan 2019, 20:06
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi GMATNinja AjiteshArun generis GMATNinjaTwo
Can you please explain the difference between "Help in buying" and "help to buy".
I, at times, get stuck when answering questions testing this concept.
Regards
Can you please explain the difference between "Help in buying" and "help to buy".
I, at times, get stuck when answering questions testing this concept.
Regards
Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block below for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
udaypratapsingh99
Joined: 12 Jan 2019
Last visit: 11 Nov 2025
Posts: 399
Given Kudos: 372
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy, Leadership
Schools: Fuqua '24 Harvard '24 LBS '24 NTU NUS Said '23 Ross '24 Sloan '24 Stanford '24 Tepper '24 Tuck '24 Wharton '24 Yale '24
GMAT 1: 660 Q47 V34
Products:
Schools: Fuqua '24 Harvard '24 LBS '24 NTU NUS Said '23 Ross '24 Sloan '24 Stanford '24 Tepper '24 Tuck '24 Wharton '24 Yale '24
GMAT 1: 660 Q47 V34
Posts: 399
16 Jan 2019, 06:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
warrior1991
As per my knowledge, Grammatically, these are both correct.
Generally, In 'help in buying', help is a GERUND ie a noun and 'in buying' modifies it.
Whereas, in 'help to buy' help is a verb.
There might be some special cases too.
Let me know, it the answer was helpful.
Posted from my mobile device
17 Jan 2019, 15:13
Kudos
Bookmarks
warrior1991
Honestly, this is an obscure idiom that I wouldn't devote much brain space to, but if you're curious, the correct usage comes down to whether "help" is used as a noun or verb, as others have noted.
If I'm using "help" as a noun, the following construction is fine: "I offered help to my friend Dan, who needed someone to watch his children while he gambled away the savings he planned to use for their college tuition." Here, we have HELP (noun) + TO + NOUN. Perfectly okay. We could also write, "He asked for help with raising his children." This also seems fine. In this case, the construction is HELP (noun)+ PREPOSITION + VERB-ING.
If I'm using "help" as a verb, I could pair it with an infinitive or a noun. For example, "Dana helped to secure financing for the merger that would, in time, destroy the country's economy." So HELP (verb) + INFINITIVE is also fair game.
What the GMAT doesn't seem to like, is a construction such as, "I offered help to raise Dan's kids." In other words HELP (noun)+ INFINITIVE is no good. It's not entirely clear if this is a definitive grammar issue, or if the problem is that once I see HELP + TO, I'm expecting to see a noun, and so have to reread the phrase a couple of times to wrap my mind around what the writer hopes to convey.
But again, idioms should not be a priority for you. Virtually every time we see an official question in which an idiom serves as a primary decision point, it's an older, long-retired problem. So if you find yourself stuck on an idiom, look for more concrete issues to eliminate answer choices. More on all of that in this article.
I hope that helps!
