Using "assist" as a noun?

[Torsten]

Hi,

In the following sentence the word "assist" seems to be used as a noun. As far as I know, "assist" is just a verb, isn't it? So what do you make of the following sentence:

Implementing a communications system, based on the principles of the communications continuum, can be an enormous assist.

In other words, how common is it use "assist" as a noun?

Thanks for your assistance,
Torsten
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[bert]

I am not sure why they don't use the word benefit instead of assist in that sentence. I dont think assist is used often as a noun.

[prezbucky]

It is used as a noun sometimes:

- Thanks for the assist. (Thanks for the help... thanks for helping me... etc.)

And it's used especially in sports like basketball and hockey:

- Jordan made the shot. Pippen gets the assist.

- What a great assist that was! He threaded the puck between three opponents and right onto the stick of Krapchinski. That pass had eyes!
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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

The word assist is officially recognized a noun as well as a verb. You only need to check an English dictionary to verify this (Oxford, Webster's, American Heritage, just to name a few).

A very common way of using assist as a noun is just as Prezbucky described above. The usage in your sentence does not sound unusual to me. That would also be a standard way to use assist.

There is a grammatical difference between the nouns assist and assistance:
- assist is countable
- assistance is uncountable

If the Oxford Dictionary is to be believed, however, the usage of assist as a noun occurs primarily in American English. Perhaps you should ask Alan about the usage of assist as a noun in Britain.

http://www.onelook.com/?w=assist&ls=a
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Mister Micawber]

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I agree with PB and Yankee, and would only comment that in your given sentence, alongside such words as implement and continuum, assist as a noun sounds considerably 'down-register' and would be more appropriate in the form of enormous assistance.

PS: Gee, I wonder if the writer meant asset?-- that word seems to work there too.
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who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber

[HamburgEnglish]

I find the word assist as a noun so "unbelivibly" incorrect !!!!!!!!! (British!)
The Americans are changing the English language into every form they wish, but hey, this has also been going on in they UK for many years. Its called dialect I suppose.
In America, they have many very strange uses of English, for instance ... in a recent TOEFL test "did you finish the report yet"
So we must accept the American dialect like every other.

In the sentence, I would have said "can be OF enormous ASSISTANCE" ....... But it could quite be a typo and mean "asset" as suggested.

[Alan]

Hi Hamburg,

Setting aside the helpful suggestion that 'asset' could have been meant, I am intrigued by your exclamation that the verb 'assist' doubling as a noun is, to quote:

[HamburgEnglish]

(Laughing)

Yes your correct Alan.

English is beautiful and one must always remember that no matter what I or other people say, just around the corner another British person will be speaking something different.

I don't blame the Americans ... I wouldn't dare !! LOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Yankee]

[Mister Micawber]

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[Torsten]

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I'm sure obsolete is generally used far more often as an adjective, but tech companies in particular seem quite fond of using it as a verb -- possibly because things tend to become yesterday's news so darn quickly in the world of high tech:

- We obsoleted that product last month.
- The government has established a new program to retrain workers who have been obsoleted.

There usually isn't much difference between to obsolete and to make obsolete other than it's faster to say the former. However, when the past participle obsoleted is used as an adjective, it retains the active sense that something caused something else to become obsolete.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English