Need only

He need only ask and he will receive a response. (Formal - Business setting?)

All he's got to do is ask and he will get an answer. (Neutral setting)

Need

Thanks to Florence who researched the use of Need

As an ordinary verb

As an ordinary verb need is used in the sense of ‘require’. It has the usual forms needs and needed. Ordinary need is followed by an infinitive with to.

• One needs to be punctual.
• Everybody needs to be loved.
• He needed some more time to decide the question.

Questions and negatives are made with do.

• Do you need to go now?
• I don't need to talk to him.

As an auxiliary verb

The auxiliary form of need is used mainly in questions and negatives. It is also used after negative words like hardly and only.

• You need not work today.
• Need I go now?
• Need we reserve seats?
• He need only say what he wants and it will be granted.
• I need hardly add that you are always welcome.

The auxiliary need is followed by an infinitive without to. It has no –s in the third person singular.

• He need not wait. (NOT He needs not wait.)
• You need not come.

Questions and negatives are made without do.

• Need I come again? (NOT Do I need come again?)

Note that the auxiliary form of need is rare in American English.

Points to be noted

The auxiliary need is mainly used to ask for or give permission. It is not used to talk about habitual or general things.

• You need not work today. (Auxiliary - Particular occasion)
• You don't need to work on Sundays. (Ordinary - habitual thing)
• You need not pay for this call. (Auxiliary - Particular occasion)
• In most countries, you don't need to pay for emergency calls. (Ordinary - general thing)

Need is usually used in questions without ‘not’.

• Need I wait any longer?
• Need he come again?

If the answer is in the negative, you should say – ‘No, he need not’ or ‘No, you need not’. But if the answer is in the positive, you should say – ‘Yes, he must’ or ‘Yes, you must’. The opposite of need not in such a context is not need but must.

Need not + perfect infinitive

The structure need not + perfect infinitive can be used to say that somebody did something, but that was unnecessary.

• They need not have come all this way. (= They came all this way, but it was not necessary.)
• We need not have waited for his approval. (= We waited for his approval, but that was not necessary.)
• You need not have bought a new car.
• You need not have paid for that call.

Note that need not have does not mean the same as did not need to. When we say that somebody did not need to do something, we are simply saying that it was not necessary (whether or not it was done).
Compare:

• I need not have bought it. (=I bought it, but it was not necessary.)
• I didn't need to buy it. (=It was not necessary for me to buy it.)

Need + participle

In British English it is possible to use an –ing form after need. It means the same as a passive infinitive.

• Your hair needs washing. (= Your hair needs to be washed.)
• The carpet needs cleaning. (= The carpet needs to be cleaned.)
• The roof needs repairing.

A structure with need + object + present/past participle is also possible in some cases.

• You need your hair cutting/cut.
• You need your car cleaned.

Grammar Exercises

This website should help you all with the areas you need to improve upon in your grammar

http://www.llas.ac.uk/materialsbank/mb061/index.htm

Classroom thoughts! :)

Page 115 Use of English

He was hours behind schedule, close to exhaustion and utterly alone, his companions having fallen far behind.

I spoke to another teacher and we agreed that in British English, when we have coordination clauses, that it's not possible to use had after a comma but the present participle needs to be used.

Classroom Thoughts - Commas

Today in class, we were talking about the usage of commas.


In particular the use of a comma before 'so'. In the following example we need to use commas before co-ordinating conjunctions

The thief was wearing impractical high heels, so she could not run fast.

If you want to do some exercises on this, please click on the following links:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_45.htm

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_46.htm

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_47.htm

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_48.htm

Website of the Week! Sentence Transformation

I just found this cool website which has some practice exercises on the sentence transformation exercise:


http://www.imparareinglese.co.uk/esercizi_inglese/CPE_key_word_transformation_1.html


http://www.imparareinglese.co.uk/esercizi_inglese/CPE_key_word_transformation_2.html


Hope you find it useful! : )

Classroom Thoughts

Past Participles:

Participles can be used as a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a clause.

We have a few exceptions with certain verbs e.g. Dream

As it can be 'dreamed' or 'dreamt':

They're both grammatically correct. "Dreamt" is usually more commonly used in British English' whereas 'Dreamed' is normally used in American English.

As an adjective you can say for example:

- it was dreamt-up  or...
- it was dreamed-up.

Although I would use 'dreamt-up'.

Be careful as there are some special past-participle forms:

drunken driving
a shrunken head
a sunken ship
rotten fruit.

spread

Related dictionary definitions

• spread noun
• middle-aged spread noun
• middle-age spread noun
• spread out phrasal verb
• spread betting noun
• spread like wildfire
• spread/stretch/try your wings

Menu

1. affect larger area
2. disease affects many
3. open something folded
4. cover with soft food
5. divide/reduce something
6. be present in wide area
7. give information to many
8. move parts of body apart
9. cause feeling in many
10. +phrase

1. [intransitive] to gradually affect or cover a larger area
   

   UN leaders hope to prevent the fighting from spreading.

   Rain will spread from the west this evening.

   Anti-globalization protests spread rapidly across the globe.

   Within less than an hour, the fire had spread to the fuel stores.

   She heard a shot, then saw a dark-red stain spreading across his shirt.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   1. a.

      if a smile or other expression spreads across or over your face, it becomes gradually bigger or more obvious
      

      He let a slow smile spread across his face.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
2. [intransitive/transitive] if a disease spreads, or if something spreads it, it affects more people as it is passed from one person to another
   

   Cholera spread quickly through the refugee camp.

   Soldiers returning from the war soon spread the disease through most of the region.

   a computer virus that spread rapidly through users’ email systems

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
3. or
   

   spread out

   [transitive] to open something that is folded so that it covers a surface
   

   spread something on/over something:
   

   We spread the blanket on the grass and sat down on it.

   The map was spread on the floor.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   
   

   spread

4. [intransitive/transitive] to cover a surface with a thin layer of a soft food
   

   Butter spreads more easily when it hasn’t been in the fridge.

   spread something on something:
   

   Maureen spread jam on her toast.

   spread something with something:
   

   First, spread the bread with mayonnaise.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
5. [transitive] to divide and share work or obligations among several people
   

   We will bring in extra staff to spread the workload.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   1. a.

      [transitive] to divide an amount of money that you owe into parts and pay it in several instalments instead of all at one time
      

      spread something over something:
      

      You can spread your payments over two, three, or five years.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
   2. b.

      or
      

      spread out

      [transitive] [usually passive] to make something happen at several times during a long period instead of all at once
      

      Attacks of the illness were spread over a three-year period.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

      
      

      spread

   3. c.

      [transitive] if you spread a risk, you invest in several different things so that if one fails, you do not lose everything
      

      Smythe spread his financial risk by investing in a wide range of businesses.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
6. [intransitive/transitive] [usually passive] to be present in many parts of a large area
   

   be spread over/across something:
   

   There are 54 community colleges spread across California.

   Indonesia is a nation of over 200 million people, spread over 17,000 islands.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
7. [transitive] to give information to many people
   

   Someone has been spreading nasty rumours about Stella’s private life.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   1. a.

      [intransitive] if information spreads, it becomes known by more people than before
      

      spread to:
      

      News of the attack has already spread to the islands.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread
8. or
   

   spread out

   [transitive] to move your arms, legs, or hands so that they are far apart
   

   First, lie on the floor with your arms spread wide.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   1. a.

      to open something wide
      

      The bird spread its wings and flew away.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

   
   

   spread

9. [transitive] to cause a lot of people to have a particular feeling
   

   Smiling at people was Debra’s way of spreading a little happiness.

   A gang of drug dealers was spreading terror in the neighbourhood.

   Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread

phrase

• spread the word/gospel/message

  to tell a lot of people about an idea that you believe in
  

  They are spreading the word on the need for healthy eating.

  Campaigners worked tirelessly to spread the environmentalist message.

  Thesaurus entry for this meaning of spread