13008
According to Wiktionary, the only conjugation I can match this to is the
conjunctive form, but that doesn't make any sense, given the context (as in
"Help me!"). What would the equivalent conjugation of other verbs be here?

(Note: my background is perhaps equivalent to 1/2-year's worth of Japanese,
gleaned through osmosis via animes and some books.)
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2013-10-04T04:30:11.573
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2018-05-10T00:50:20.110
2018-05-10T00:50:20.110
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question
verbs conjugations て-form
What conjugation is 助けて, when used as an interjection?
_Conjunctive form_ is just a label. It tells you about one of the most common
uses of the _-te_ form, but it's not a complete definition. Let's take a look
at the relevant sense in [大辞林](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E3%81%A6), a
Japanese dictionary:

> 命令・依頼を表す。「てよ」「てね」の形をとることもある。

Translated, this says that it **expresses a command or request** , and that it
can also take the forms てよ and てね. (In other words, this use of the _-te_ form
sometimes has the particles よ or ね after it.)

How does this make sense? Well, I was taught that this comes from either 〜てくれ
or more politely 〜てください, with the くれ or ください omitted. So in this case, I think
助けて is a bit of a softer than the actual imperative form 助けろ.
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2013-10-04T07:46:12.217
13008
2013-10-04T15:14:43.560
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answer