needn't vs don't need

[Serzige]

Heyya!
I really don't know how to use this "needn't". I don't even know what part of the speech it is...(I think it's kind of a modal). But I'd appreciate that someone could give me some examples to enlighten me, ha, ha, ha, ha and see the difference between this and the "don't need". Finally, can you ask a question using "needn't"? and is this formal or informal language?

Thanks in advance!
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Sergio M.
"Life is too short to grieve in sorrow"

[Kitosdad]

" You needn't to have bought that brush, we don't need it as we already have one."

Before anyone screams ................... this is how we would say this in ENGLAND.

I don't think it is a modal in it's base form. Need ... Needs.
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[Skrej]

'Needn't' is the preferred construction in BrE.

AmE uses the 'don't need' construction. You won't find 'needn't' used in AmE.

Need has both a modal usage and a non-modal usage.

Used as non-modal, it stands alone as the main verb, followed by a direct object.
I need money.
I need sleep.

Used as a modal verb, it is an auxiliary verb followed by an infinitive (AmE), or some kind of present perfect construction (BrE) (judging by Kitos's example).
I need to sleep/ I don't need to sleep (AmE - modal usage)
I need to buy/I don't need to buy (AmE - modal usage)

Somebody else will have to provide you with modal usages in BrE.

You can use "Don't we need ______" as an question form in AmE, so I'm guessing that it follows you can use 'Needn't we ____" in BrE, but again a BrE speaking will have to verify or correct me on the BrE aspect.
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[Kitosdad]

Skrej, you are right. We do use " needn't we " quite freely.

My reference to need not being a modal verb, is that in the third person singular it becomes "needs", whereas my belief has always been that true modal verbs do not change their form throughout.

It seems to have escaped your attention that I am British. Living in Germany has not changed my nationality.

Kitos.
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If you need me, I'm here.

[Shyone]

[Milanya]

[Kitosdad]

Milanya What about the modal verb? Is my supposition correct?.

Bill.
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If you need me, I'm here.

[Milanya]

My grammar is not that good.

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic7316.html
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con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.

[Batsukh]

hi how can I change my accent ?

[Milanya]

Message deleted.
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con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.

[Jamie (K)]

[Kitosdad]

" Many people use it only when they are ridiculing the British or rich old ladies."

Quite a confident statement to make Jamie. How did you arrive at this?

Does you sentence relate solely to the British, or, rich old ladies, or both?

Kitos.
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[Jamie (K)]

In North America, it is very uncommon to hear the words "needn't" and "mustn't". If you do hear them being used by an American or Canadian, it is likely as not to be a satirical usage intended as an imitation of the British, or as an imitation of rich, elderly American women who grew up at a time when rich American children were still taught to speak something like RP. (Watch, for example, an interview with Buster Crabbe when he was a champion swimmer at Princeton speaking something like RP, and then see him in the films he acted in, where he speaks with his native accent. Or just listen to Franklin Roosevelt.) This RP envy stopped after WWII, and these old ladies are mostly dead now, so they are mainly heard in very old movies, and they occasionally emerge in episodes of Dragnet from the 1960s. Most North Americans can come out with "needn't" once in a great while, but North American men are unlikely to say "mustn't", because it makes them sound effeminate. Similarly, it sounds homosexual for a man in North America to say he "fancies" something.

When I was teaching in Europe from British textbooks, I used to gloss over "needn't" because (a) it's necessary to understand it, but it's not necessary to use it, and (b) two-thirds of the world's native English speakers think it sounds funny and that men who use it sound a bit gay. Therefore, I would just present it and essentially tell the students, "Here it is. You need to understand it, but you don't need to use it. Most native English speakers seldom or never use it, and there are other ways to express that meaning." Then we'd move on.

In very formal situations, though, we often use the uncontracted form "need not".