English term
don’t need / need
"Task: Choose correct words:
We don’t need / need to hand this in until next week."
"don’t need / need" are written in italics as alternative options.
In my opinion, both sentences are grammatically correct.
- We don’t need to hand this in until next week.
- We need to hand this in until next week.
Is there any reason why one would be more correct than the other?
TIA!
Mar 29, 2023 13:51: philgoddard changed "Field (write-in)" from "Zerkleinerungsanlage" to "(none)"
Mar 29, 2023 14:27: Chris Says Bye changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Tony M, Yasutomo Kanazawa, Chris Says Bye
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Responses
not...until
We don't need to hand this in until next week
OR
We need to hand this in [or - we have to hand this in] **by** next week
If you had "we need to hand this in until next week", it refers to a continuous action (e.g. "we need to keep stirring the eggs until they are well-mixed) - which obviously doesn't make sense here.
agree |
Tony M
20 mins
|
agree |
philgoddard
22 mins
|
agree |
Nadja Wieser
25 mins
|
agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: Basic grammar
1 hr
|
agree |
Arabic & More
1 hr
|
agree |
Sarah Lewis-Morgan
2 hrs
|
agree |
Jaime Oriard
2 hrs
|
agree |
AllegroTrans
: Understandable confusion as I think "by" and "until" are expressed with one single word in some languages
4 hrs
|
agree |
writeaway
9 hrs
|
Until vs by
It is incorrect to say we need to hand it in UNTIL next week. The correct version would be " we need to hand it in BY next week.
So:
We don't need to hand it in until next week
We need to hand it in by next week.
Is it more clear? Hope it helps
agree |
Arabic & More
1 hr
|
neutral |
AllegroTrans
: This is essentially the same answer as Jennifer's, with which you could have agreed
8 hrs
|
Yes absolutely. When I started typing there were no answers. Jennifer published her answer first. I think the main goal here is to be helpful, and 2 people can explain the same thing in different ways, no harm done. No need for judgement here.
|
|
agree |
Chris Says Bye
: @AllegroTrans, they were clearly typing at the same time...
1 day 20 hrs
|
Thank you Ice Scream, exactly right!
|
We don’t need / need to hand this in until next week.
disagree |
AllegroTrans
: The question has already been answered and "this is because the there a subject i this" makes no sense whatever
16 hrs
|
Discussion
My first instinct was to choose "don't need", but the answer key specified "need" as the correct answer. Therefore I thank all the native speakers for their effort here to clarify it. It's then a double mistake :)