"I need your help"
- I need your knowledge, there is something that I can't do and only you can help me with it.
"Can I ask you a favour?"
- This is asking someone to do an action that you can do yourself, you just want someone else to do it.
They are different things and can be used in a situation like this:
"Hi, can I ask you a favour?"
"Yes sure, what is it?"
"I need your help with something"
Thanks Alex_Murphy. I appreciate your help.
Thanks to you, I think I've understood the difference between them, but, reading your example situation, I'm a bit confused.
Why one can use both of them in the same line of conversation, although they are different things?
Basically the same thing but in different ways of saying it
Hi all,
Is my assumption correct that "I need your help with something" and "Can I ask you a favor?" basically mean the same thing and I can use them interchangeably?
Thanks.
Actually, when you ask someone to do you a favor, usually you need to explain what the favor is after the other person says yes (or else he wouldn't be able to do anything for you). So it's just logical to assume that as the conversation goes, you'll have to say something like: "I need you to........" or "I need your help with something".
Of course, if you guys are really the best of friends, you might just say: "Hey, I need your help with........" But that's not so polite.
"Can I ask you a favor" is one of those wasted polite phrases since the person you're asking almost says "yes" and then you have to ask whatever it was you wanted in the first place.