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[Nabubrush]

So, at work I often find myself needing to put the phrase "needs to be tested" into a spreadsheet cell. My gut feeling is that the phrase "needs tested" means the same thing and is grammatically correct, and has the additional advantage of greater brevity (if what I am thinking of could be described that way). I think that the construction "needs tested" (which eliminates the quaintly expressed "helping verb") probably has a name as a verb tense/form, like present pluperfect or some other crazy thing. The deal is that I should know this, because I have an English degree, but quite frankly there was some coasting going on during my college career. I would like this information so I can back myself up when I populate my spreadsheet with these terms/phrases.

If anyone actually hacked their way through the above paragraph and has an answer for me, could you help a brother out? (I am probably not actually your brother.)

[Gimpson]

I'm going to leave the linguistic analysis to the professionals, but I had a friend in high school whose whole family would use that sort of construction.  It always struck me as odd, and I've never heard it since, but Julie's mom would have no problem saying "Margo needs picked up.  Can you go get her?"

[arkabee]

couldn't you just use "needs testing" for "needs to be tested"?

or, howabout, "test!!!"?

[Nabubrush]

couldn't you just use "needs testing" for "needs to be tested"?

or, howabout, "test!!!"?

Thank you, but I really just want an answer about the subject. I have all sorts of solutions, but I am wondering about the part of speech. Also, it may be an infinitely small difference in two shades of gray/grey, but I think there is a subtle difference between "needs tested" and "needs testing," and needs tested is shorter. But thank you again.

[CortJstr]

This reminds me of the great shift from "falling rock" roadsigns to "fallen rock" because the latter has fewer letters.

Which reminds me that I will never grasp the differences between fewer and less. And don't even get me started on further and farther. And what's the deal with airline food?

[Nabubrush]

No wandering. I want answers, dammit!

I just want to know how you would describe the verb form of "needs tested" if your meaning was "this needs to be tested."



Paging Wombat. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[arkabee]

dictionary.com[/url]"]Regional Note: When need is used as the main verb, it can be followed by a present participle, as in The car needs washing, or by to be plus a past participle, as in The car needs to be washed. However, in some areas of the United States, especially western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, many speakers omit to be and use just the past participle form, as in The car needs washed. This use of need with past participles is slightly more common in the British Isles, being particularly prevalent in Scotland.

[Nabubrush]

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!

We have a winner, folks, and thanks for playing.


Some of you Brits were lying down on the job.

[Va]

Which reminds me that I will never grasp the differences between fewer and less.

Oh, that's easy.  Use "fewer" when you are talking about a distinct number of discrete objects, "less" when you are referring to a fraction of a whole.

"People brought fewer cakes to the hootenanny this year."

Versus:

"People ate less cake at the hootenanny this year."

[Gimpson]

dictionary.com[/url]"]Regional Note: When need is used as the main verb, it can be followed by a present participle, as in The car needs washing, or by to be plus a past participle, as in The car needs to be washed. However, in some areas of the United States, especially western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, many speakers omit to be and use just the past participle form, as in The car needs washed. This use of need with past participles is slightly more common in the British Isles, being particularly prevalent in Scotland.

Her family was from Pittsburgh.

[Nabubrush]

Consider yourselves off the chain.

[wombat]

I love how I don't need to be a linguist anymore because we have Google.

Actually, all I could have told you anymore was that someone who used that construction was probably from someplace like Pittsburgh.  I would have had to look up the rest of the answer too.  I was a phonologist, not a syntactician.

[CortJstr]

That explains why it sounded perfectly normal to me.

[arkabee]

if the spreadsheet is for personal use, use the awkward construct,
if it is for public use, don't, because there's gonna be some jackass just like me who will read "needs tested" as "it's tested don't do anything with it".

[AugustWest]

I was a phonologist, not a syntactician.

Cool!  Can you tell me the right cartridge to use on my turntable?

What?