Stock Trading and Other Things

In English grammar, can you say, "We are assisting companies identify niche markets."?

This is formal business writing. I'm an editor and the sentence was written by highly intelligent business advisors. However, it sounds to me like someone exchanged the less formal "helping" for the more business-sounding "assisting", without updating the grammar. I think 99% of people would think that the minimal change one could make would be, "We are assisting companies with identifying niche markets."

Can anyone link to rule that proves why "assisting" is treated differently by grammar than "helping" ... or is my common sense wrong?

Public Comments

1. I'm sorry I don't have a link, but from first hand...I would say you are right. 'We are assisting companies identify niche markets' sounds like someone has tried to substitute 'helping' with 'assisting' and not changed the relevant grammar. For assisting to work correctly it would need to add either 'with' or 'in' before assisting. :)

2. Whether you use assisting or helping I would insert "to" before identify. I don't think they are treated differently. We are helping/assisting (either one) companies to identify niche markets.

3. I think they both sound incorrect. There should be no disparity in how you treat assisting and helping. I think your sentence should read:

We are assisting companies TO identify THEIR niche markets.

4. They are writing in 3rd person stating what their company does ; therefore, the sentence may sound incorrect, but grammatically it is not.
Their company assist other companies identify "niche markets".
If you add "with" you change the context of the sentence.

5. I think you are correct. The original might well have been:

We are helping companies identify... That's OK. It could also be:

We are helping companies TO identify...

The rule you're looking for involves the use of the bare infinitive - the infinitive without the 'to.' 'Help' is a little odd in that it is one of the few verbs other than modals which may be followed by the bare infinitive. It's odder still in that it may also be used with the full infinitive; either is acceptable with 'help.' Not so with 'assist.' It must be followed by the full infinitive: We are assisting companies TO identify..., or the sentence must be recast to use some other verb form, like preposition + participle.

I can't find the site that had the best explanation, but the link below does a pretty good job.