ください/くれる and its various conjugations


When asking someone else to do a favour, one would append ください or くれる. For
example, 手伝ってください or 手伝ってくれる to either mean "please help me" in the former
case and "can you help me" in the latter case. What if I were to say
手伝ってくれていい, would this mean exactly the same as 手伝ってくれる? Or does no one
actually say it like this? Also, is the difference between 手伝ってください and
手伝ってくれる, only being that the former is taking a stronger stance in asking
someone (for a favor) to help, whilst the latter a lighter stance, such that
it isn't really forcing but merely asking in a light tone?




手伝ってください is a kinda straightforward "Help me please". てください is a polite
imperative so like with every imperativ you don't really give the other person
a choice (In a grammatical sense). Same with 手伝ってくれ(よ) which is the plain
imperativ which sound like a "Cmon, please help me" or 手伝いなさい as "Help me
(now)!" (Of course depending on the context)

Politer ways to ask for something would be 手伝ってくれる(?) and 手伝ってもらっていい？ Both
give the other person a choice and therefore sound nice. They are on the same
politeness level, but people have personal tendencies. Some examples:

> ...  
>  A: 明日なら一緒に勉強していいよ  
>  B:本当に手伝ってくれる？ありがとう！

or

> A:ちょっと説明してもらっていい？  
>  B:明日なら一緒に勉強していいよ

As mentioned by other people the いい wouldn't work out with the てくれる so you
would have to combine it with もらう.

