need -ing

Question

Grammer books say:This bicycle needs repairing.=This bicycle needs to be repaired.Then, how does it sound to you native speakers if I say "This bicycle needs being repaired"? Does it still make sense?

Mancroft · Accepted Answer

1. "Grammer books say:"

Get a piece of paper and write the following word ten times: GRAMMAR

This bicycle needs repairing
CORRECT

This bicycle needs to be repair
INCORRECT

This bicycle needs being repaired
INCORRECT

you could also say:

This bicycle needs to be repaired

Taka · Answer

Mancroft1.

This bicycle needs to be repair
INCORRECT

That's a typo, sorry. I fixed it.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Taka, as a native, I would say "needs to be repaired."

Taka · Answer

Grammar GeekTaka, as a native, I would say "needs to be repaired."

I know you would say 'needs to be repaired' rather than 'needs being repaired'. But my question is if 'need being -ed' makes sense at all or not.

Could you answer me on that point?

BarbaraPA · Answer

Many things said by non-native speakers are understandable. I would understand what you mean. But it is not correct grammar.

Marius Hancu · Answer

Taka
Grammar GeekTaka, as a native, I would say "needs to be repaired."
I know you would say 'needs to be repaired' rather than 'needs being repaired'. But my question is if 'need being -ed' makes sense at all or not.

Could you answer me on that point?

"needs to be repaired," which was suggested by GG, has 138,000 hits at Yahoo.

"needs being repaired," which you suggested, has only 7 hits, on Chinese sites.

Your call.
People will understand you, but that won't be correct English.

Taka · Answer

Grammar GeekMany things said by non-native speakers are understandable. I would understand what you mean. But it is not correct grammar.

Then the next question.

·need -ing=need to be done (i.e. '-ing' here is semantically passive)

Then how do you make it semantically active, using '-ing'?

MrPedantic · Answer

That's an interesting question. There seem to be three possible structures:

1. Your hair needs | to grow, before I can cut it.

— Active: "your hair" is the agent of "grow".

2. Your hair needs | to be protected from the sun.

— Passive: "your hair" is the patient of "to be protected".

3. Your hair needs | cutting.

— Ergative: "your hair" is the patient of "cutting", even though the latter is active in form.

These however don't seem idiomatic, in standard English:

4. *Your hair needs | growing.

— where "hair" is the agent of "grow" (i.e. "grow" is intransitive).

5. *Your hair needs | being cut.

— where "hair" is the patient of "being cut".

I wonder whether this apparent asymmetry is due to a very slight difference in sense: the "need" in #3 seems to relate to "requirement" (cf. "your hair needs a wash"), while the "need" in #1 and #2 relates to "necessity".

(I'd be interested to hear what others think.)

MrP

Emily__ · Answer

And what about:

The bicycle needs to repaire. It´s most probably incorrect but I don´t know why. We could say "need to go", "need to know".... though.

Thanks for explanation.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Emily, the bicycle isn't the thing doing the repairs, a human is. Repair is a transitive verb that requires an object.

I need to repair my bicycle is okay, and the passive construction of My bicycle needs to be repaired is okay, but The bicycle needs to repair doesn't make sense because the bicycle itself cannot do the repair work.

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