Indicating obligation and willingness

Students' problems

page 6 of 11

The semi-modal need

A common problem area is the unnecessary addition of to after need not:

I woke up at about nine o'clock because I need not to go to school.
(TeleNex Students)

We need not to have plenty of money - it cannot make us feel happy.
(TeleNex Students)

For teaching purposes, students can be told that a more natural way of expressing this idea using need is to use it with the appropriate form of the auxiliary do:

I woke up at about nine o'clock because I didn't need to go to school.

We do not need to have plenty of money - it cannot make us feel happy.

A related problem involves students adding -s to need when used in the negative, in the mistaken assumption that it behaves like a regular third person singular verb in the present tense. When this happens, students write sentences such as the following:

Because today is a holiday, he needs not go to school.

A more natural way of expressing this would be:

Because today is a holiday, he need not go to school.

or even better:

Because today is a holiday, he doesn't need to go to school.

Introduction
Using modals with other verbs
The contracted form of will
Distinguishing between would and will
The modal could
The semi-modal need
The semi-modal dare
Adjectives used to indicate obligation
Distinguishing between nouns and other parts of speech
Distinguishing between suggest and advise
Distinguishing between willing and want