Examples of using "подержать" in a sentence and their english translations:
Can you hold this for a second?
You can hold my hand.
And he wanted to hold the baby.
Can I hold your baby?
Can you hold the elevator, please?
I want to hold your hand.
What a cute baby! May I hold her?
Let me hold your hand.
The most dangerous thing Tom ever wanted to try to do was to hold a poisonous snake.
Didn't you ask me to hold your hand?
The English articles are bread-and-butter important. For instance, if I ask my English friend to hold my bag for a while, and then ask to give it back by saying "Give me bag", he'll probably steal the bag of the man standing around because he didn't understand which bag was meant.