This mini episode teaches you the useful “can’t help” construction.
Episode 196 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the “can’t help” construction to express that someone is unable to prevent something. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
"Hi! This is Amy from Bucheon, Korea, and you’re listening to Everybody ESL."
Welcome to episode 196 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it, too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
Today I want to teach you an expression that uses the phrase “can’t help.” Can’t help. That’s can’t: c-a-n-apostrophe-t, help: h-e-l-p. Can’t help.
The expression I’m thinking of can be found in this sentence: “I can’t help falling asleep early on the weekends.” I can’t help falling asleep early on the weekends.
What does can’t help mean in a sentence like that? Can’t help means “I can’t prevent this,” or “I can’t stop myself from doing this.” Or “I can’t control myself, and I do this.” I can’t help falling asleep early on the weekends means “I can’t stop myself from falling asleep early on the weekends,” or “I can’t control myself, and I fall asleep early on the weekends.”
The form of this construction is can’t help and then the -ing form of a verb, which is called the present participle (but you don’t really need to know that). "Can’t help and the -ing form of the verb" can be used with almost any verb.
You could say, “I can’t help eating at my favorite restaurant once a week,” or “I can’t help avoiding homework.” Or “I can’t help spending too much time on the Internet.” This construction works for all of those verbs. And there is a very famous song that is almost sixty years old now that is called “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.” All of these use can’t help plus the -ing form of the verb.
Now, there is another form that this can’t help construction can take. Instead of can’t help and then the -ing form of the verb or the present participle, it uses can’t help but and then a verb. When I said, “I can’t help falling asleep early on the weekends,” that was just one way I could use this can’t help construction. I could also have said, “I can’t help but fall asleep early on the weekends.”
This is just another form that this construction can have. You can say can’t help and then the -ing form of a verb, or can’t help but and then the regular form of the verb: can’t help but fall asleep early on the weekends. “I can’t help but be disappointed by that new movie.” (That new movie was not as good as I hoped that it would be.) “I can’t help but feel disappointed.” Or “I can’t help feeling disappointed.”
I think those two forms of this construction mean the same thing. They’re just two different ways of saying that you can’t control yourself or you can’t prevent yourself from doing something.
That is the can’t help construction. I think this is a common and useful construction that you should know.
Outro
And that’s the end of episode 196 of Everybody ESL. Remember, if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Amy recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye. I’ll see you soon.