Quote Originally Posted by Lampada
The verb help can be followed by an infinitive with or without to
Could you help me (to) put these boxes in the van.
In that example sentence, you should only use "to" if you want to sound like someone who's not quite ready for the TOEFL!

But there ARE times when it's a good idea (but not mandatory) to use "to" with an infinitive after the verb "help" -- particularly when there are a large number of words separating "help" from the infinitive verb, instead of just a cute little pronoun like "me." For example:

"Excuse me, but could you please help a very tired mother whose husband is deployed in Iraq and whose teething baby who won't stop crying to find her six-year-old son who's wandered away in the supermarket?"
Because the infinitive is so far away from the main verb, many native English speakers would place a to in the sentence to sort of "reconnect" the verbs help and find.

But when the verbs are only separated by a pronoun, or maybe a noun plus an adjective or two, we'd never say "to" after "help":

He helped the old Chinese woman lift the heavy box.