Modal Verbs

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

1. You needn’t come if you don’t want to.

2. You don’t need to see a doctor. You are perfectly healthy.

3. I don’t have to work on Saturdays.

_____________________________ 1. Coloured by the permissive attitude of the speaker.

2. Objective fact (it isn’t necessary)

Difference between 2. and 3: 2. It isn’t necessary for you to see the doctor; 3. I’m not obliged to work on Saturdays.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Parallels with must and have to: a) needn’t generally expressesthe authority of the

speaker, while the other two verbs denote external authority or circumstances, remove the obligation or necessity for action.

b) needn’t + present infinitive has only a present or future time reference, it can be left unchanged in reported speech.

e.g. I told him he needn’t come if he didn’t want to.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• If absence of obligation or necessity will exist only eventually or is dependent on some other event we use will or shall.

e.g. When you get an assistant, perhaps you won’t have to work so hard.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• The simple present tenses don’t have to and don’t need to express what is habitual

e.g. I don’t need to get up till eight to get to work on time.

• Or what is already planned for the future

e.g. We don’t have to be there till 10 tomorrow. or We haven’t got to be there till 10 o’clock.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• We use negative forms of have to and need to in many situations where needn’t lacks the necessary verb forms.

• Grammatical distinction between don’t need to and needn’t: regular verb to need vs. modal auxiliary verb need

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Regular verb to need

• Negative and interrogative sentences are formed using do.

• To need may be followed by a noun, an infinitive or gerung.

e.g. He needs/needed/didn’t need your help.

We need to see him immediately.

My pen needs filling. = My pen needs to be filled.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Modal auxiliary verb need

• It is always used in negative and interrogative sentences (which are made by adding not (n’t) to the auxiliary verb, and by the inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb)

e.g. I needn’t come. Need he come?

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Must I and Need I have almost the same meaning.

• Need I? suggests that speaker hopes for a negative answer

• Positive answer to both Must I ? and Need I? = Yes, you must!

• Negative answer = No you needn’t.

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• The positive form need is found in sentences that already contain a negative verb or adverb:

e.g. You need study only the first two chapters.

• Need is followed by the infinitive without to, no -s ending after 3rd person

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Needn’t is followed by a perfect infinitive to indicate the absence of necessity or obligation in the past: He needn’t have come. (but he came)

Compare:

You shouldn’t have come. (but you came)

You could have come. (but you didn’t come)

Absence of obligation or necessity: needn’t, not need to, not have to

• Needn’t + perfect infinitive expresses unreal past

• Didn’t need to nearly always expresses real past

e.g. I needn’t have gone. (but I went)

I didn’t need to go. (so presumably I didn’t go)