# excessive use of 'need'
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 1, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613 "2018-09-01T17:15:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@shinnen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shinnen)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/21 "2018-09-02T23:57:26Z")
> [@dalej42](#):
>
> Am I sitting through some useless corporate training? A few years ago, it seems everyone in my company had to go through some silly training about ‘positive language.’ Don’t say, “You need to fill out this form…” Ugh, what a waste of time. I don’t deal with customers and I take delight in using the forbidden phrase of ‘No problem.’
Yes. Well, 'No problem" is usually used when … there is ‘No problem’; so I guess it’s just stating the obvious.
… john
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/22 "2018-09-03T22:24:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> The word “[want](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/want)” used to mean “lack,” and as such was more-or-less a synonym for “need.” It hasn’t entirely lost that meaning, but nowadays the more common meaning is “desire.” This thread has me wondering how the meaning of “want” changed, and whether it involved the kind of “adulteration” or “deception” the OP associates with “need.”
In Old English a form of _will_ had meanings like our _to wish_ or _to desire_ but then became just a way to mark future tense (although it still has the old meaning in some contexts). _Want_ (_to lack_ or _to need_) then acquired part of the old meaning of _will_ to fill the semantic gap.
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### Author:  [@shinnen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shinnen)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/23 "2018-09-03T23:09:38Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> In Old English a form of _will_ had meanings like our _to wish_ or _to desire_ but then became just a way to mark future tense (although it still has the old meaning in some contexts). _Want_ (_to lack_ or _to need_) then acquired part of the old meaning of _will_ to fill the semantic gap.
Interesting.
… john
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### Author:  [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/24 "2018-09-04T14:36:23Z")
I’m a stickler on this for some uses, but yeah, mostly people use need as a truncation, referring to some agenda, rather than hyperbole like “I’m starving!” or whatever.
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> ETA, and the excessive, incorrect, sarcastic use of the word “literally” has changed the accepted definition such that literally literally means figuratively.
Worse, imo, is that auto-correct has changed “definitely” to “defiantly” so often that the misuse regularly goes unmentioned, and I think younger writers don’t realize there’s a difference.
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### Author:  [@shinnen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shinnen)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/25 "2018-09-04T23:48:00Z")
[Quote]
I’m a stickler on this for some uses, but yeah, mostly people use need as a truncation, referring to some agenda, rather than hyperbole like “I’m starving!” or whatever."
[Quote]
Yes, and the continual torquing of ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ with ‘impact’. But, as John Diefenbaker once said about history, “Ah, but don’t get me started …, because then you shall know the meaning of eternity.”
[Quote]
Worse, imo, is that auto-correct has changed “definitely” to “defiantly” so often that the misuse regularly goes unmentioned, and I think younger writers don’t realize there’s a difference.
[QUOTE]
Ah, I hadn’t noticed that. But my spell checker doesn’t auto-correct, it only underlines what it thinks are errors.
… john
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/26 "2018-09-04T23:51:52Z")
> [@epbrown01](#):
>
> Worse, imo, is that auto-correct has changed “definitely” to “defiantly” so often that the misuse regularly goes unmentioned, and I think younger writers don’t realize there’s a difference.
That word is one of those words I never, ever get right. And, like you said, spell check brings up a different word. If I have to use it, I usually use google to get it right.
If you’re using firefox, it may have something to do with that, their spellcheck suggestions are awful.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/27 "2018-09-05T05:24:05Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> That word is one of those words I never, ever get right. And, like you said, spell check brings up a different word. If I have to use it, I usually use google to get it right.
> If you’re using firefox, it may have something to do with that, their spellcheck suggestions are awful.
Yes, you need that like you need a hole in the head.
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### Author:  [@Mumberthax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mumberthax)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/28 "2018-09-05T17:06:38Z")
The worst of all is those who say ‘you need to’ when they mean ‘I need you to’. Nope - since nothing will happen to me if I don’t go along with your demand, there is no need on my end.
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### Author:  [@shinnen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shinnen)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/29 "2018-09-05T20:38:16Z")
> [@Mumberthax](#):
>
> The worst of all is those who say ‘you need to’ when they mean ‘I need you to’. Nope - since nothing will happen to me if I don’t go along with your demand, there is no need on my end.
Right. And well, that was my initial point. And often ‘I need you to’ really means ‘I want you to’.
… john
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### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/30 "2018-09-05T20:51:00Z")
> [@Mumberthax](#):
>
> The worst of all is those who say ‘you need to’ when they mean ‘I need you to’. Nope - since nothing will happen to me if I don’t go along with your demand, there is no need on my end.
In what constructions are you thinking of?
“You need to slow down… in order to not get a ticket/not have an accident.”
The lightest I can think of would be “You need to take out the trash”, but that is still “in order to not have trash in the house.”
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### Author:  [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/31 "2018-09-06T00:49:42Z")
> [@Mumberthax](#):
>
> The worst of all is those who say ‘you need to’ when they mean ‘I need you to’. Nope - since nothing will happen to me if I don’t go along with your demand, there is no need on my end.
Yeah, I’m going to need you to come in to work on Saturday
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excessive-use-of-need/820613/32 "2018-09-06T01:10:08Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#):
>
> Once again, that is a “Need in order to” construction.
>
> “Social media needs to go away in order for people to have civil conversations again.”
>
> You can argue that (and go for it if you want, I am using it as an example, not as something that I agree with), but “want” in that usage wouldn’t make any sense.
“Should” wound make more sense in that context.
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