“can’t help doing something” is an interesting English expression. The form is:
can’t help + gerund (spoken form)
cannot help + gerund (more formal written form)
Here is an example of its use:
This means that I can’t stop liking Sarah. It is not intentional, but I like her. Something is making me like her. I know that I should not like her (because she shouts at me), but I still continue to like her. I can’t help it.
So “can’t help doing something” means that we are not able to control something.
Here are some more examples:
Mark: “I’m sorry but I can’t help it!”
When Mark says “I can’t help it!”, he means that it is not intentional, but he just can’t stop losing his keys. He can’t control the fact that he always loses his keys.
Here is another very common example of when to use “can’t help doing something”. In this example, Mark is on the bus and he hears a private conversation behind him that he would like to reply to:
“I couldn’t help overhearing” is a very polite way of telling somebody that you heard their private conversation, but it wasn’t intentional. In this example, we say “couldn’t” because it is the past tense. We couldn’t control the fact that we heard the conversation.
Here is a question for you all. – Elvis Presley sang a famous song with “Can’t help ______ _____ ______ (3 words)” in the title. What was the full title of the song?!
Safwat says
I Cant Help Falling In Love
CATERINA says
HELLO ANDREW,
MY NAME IS CATERINA AND I AM ITALIAN.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRECIUOS LESSONS. I THINK YOUR TEACHING METHODOLOGY IS EXCELLENT, I HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT WAY TO LEARN AND IMPROVE MY ENGLISH SKILLS IN A SIMPLE WAY. YOUR LESSONS ARE SHORT, INTERESTING AND DO NOT GET ME ANNOYED. THANK TOU AGAIN. CATERINA. (BARI- ITALY)
ali says
YOU’RE WELCOME DEAR FRIEND ! BY THE WAY THIS IS ALI FROM IRAN . IT WOULD BE MY PLEASURE TO MEET YOU DEAR !
CATERINA says
ACTUALLY I DO NOT KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER. I WLL TRY TO GUESS. THE ANSWER MIGHT BE: “I CANNOT HELP THINKING OF YOU” OR ” I CANNOT HELP SI GING IT AGAIN”. WHICH ONE MIGHT BE CORRECT, IF SO?
CATERINA.
Kaya says
I think both of them are correct, the question might be if the second version are a common expression ?
Alameed Nasr says
Well Done, Thanks So Much.
alpa says
It is sometimes very time consuming to go though motor way and i stuck in traffic but I cannot help to use other route
Naimo says
It’s useful, I learned alot. Thank you very much
Nomaan says
Is it correct?
I couldn’t help sharing this picture.
Candido says
Amazing! I really liked the lesson. It was short, clear and straightforward. The comments were also interesting. Thus, I CAN’T HELP SCROLLING them.
CANDIDO, MOZAMBIQUE