A columnist of a business newspaper sent me e-mail sometime ago asking these two very interesting grammar questions:
“1. Why is the third person form of the verb ‘need’ not in the present tense in the sentence ‘He
need not pay to enter the sports arena’?
“2. What is the right noun form when ‘respective’ or ‘respectively’ is used with people’s names, as in the sentence ‘Gen. Cruz, Col. Santos, and Capt. Ocampo took their respective
places (place) as befitting their rank’?”
My answers to Oscar L.’s questions: The first question is why the verb “need” in the sentence “He
need not pay to enter the sports arena” isn’t in the third person, singular present-tense form “needs,” considering that the subject “he” is a pronoun in the third person singular. Indeed, this usage looks like a violation of the subject-verb agreement rule, which requires that when the subject of a sentence is singular (“he” in this case), the operative verb should also take the singular form (the present tense “needs”).
IMAGE CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM KEEPSMILINGENGLISH.COMHOW THE WORD "NEED" WORKS AS MODAL AUXILIARY IN THE NEGATIVE SENSE
This may come as a surprise, but that sentence actually doesn’t violate the subject-verb agreement rule. This is because the word “need” in that sentence works as a
modal auxiliary, not as the
intransitive verb that means “to be in want” nor the
transitive verb that means “to be in need of.” As a modal auxiliary, “need” is in the same functional category as “can,” “must,” “might,” and “may,” which as we know work in tandem with a verb to express a modal modification.*
We will recall that
modals denote an action or state in some manner other than as simple fact, such as a wish, desire, conditionality, or probability, and that modals in English (unlike verbs) don’t have “-s” and “-ing” forms. This is why “need” doesn’t have the “s” in the modal sentence “He
need not pay to enter the sports arena.”
The modal “need” is typically used in three grammatical situations: (1) in negative statements, as in “You
need not go now”; (2)
in questions, as in “
Need he go now?” instead of “
Does he have to go now”; and (3)
in hypothetical statements, as in the modal sentence “I asked whether she
need travel at night” instead of the nonmodal “I asked whether she
needs to travel at night.” In Oscar L.’s sentence, the modal “need” works with the adverb “not” to negate the statement, giving the sense of “not under necessity or not under obligation” to go now.
The strange thing is that when used in the positive sense, the modal “need” grammatically malfunctions. The resulting sentence doesn’t sound right: “He
need pay to enter the sports arena.” To make that sentence work properly, “need” should be used as a typical verb working with the infinitive “to pay,” as in “He
needs to pay to enter the sports arena.”
Now, regarding Oscar L.’s question about the adjective “respective” and the adverb “respectively”: These two words denote that two or more entities in a serial or enumerative list separately have a possession, property, or attribute of the same kind or class, as in the sentence Oscar L. presented: “Gen. Cruz, Col. Santos, and Capt. Ocampo took their
respective places as befitting their rank.” In such lists that use “respective,” the common possession, property, or attribute will always be a noun in the plural form modified by “respective,” as the noun “places” in Oscar L.’s sentence.
An interesting corollary question is how to use the adverb “respectively” instead of the adjective “respective” for the same sentence Oscar L. presented. This is the typical form the sentence will take: “As befitting their rank, Cruz, Santos, and Ocampo took their places as general, colonel, and captain,
respectively.” Here, the adverb “respectively” modifies the entire enumerative sequence introduced by the common possession, property or attribute, which, as in the case of “places” in Oscar L.’s sentence, will also be always plural in form.
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*Some grammarians categorize the modal auxiliary “need” as a semi-modal verb or marginal verb along with “dare,” “ought to,” and “used to.” These four function like a modal verb to some extent, typically in the way they form negative and interrogative constructions. Their functions and uses are discussed in detail by Richard Nordquist, professor emeritus of rhetoric and English, in the ThoughtCo. website. This essay, 742nd in the series, first appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the June 4, 2011 issue of The Manila Times
, © 2011 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
