My students (and some younger colleagues) are increasingly stating (verbal) and writing phrases as such:  "The operating system needed updated."  or "The application needs fixed."  I was of the understanding that the phrase 'to be' was required between the words needs or needed and the following verb.
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I'm from Central Pennsylvania, and apparently, we have a strange language construct in this area. I was recently talking about how "my car needs washed" to a friend from NJ, and she told me that my sentence was grammatically incorrect.   I realize she's right, and I realize my options are "my car needs to be washed" or "my car needs washing". But I'm not clear on the precise rule being invoked.
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I used to study at Cambridge School.  I am used to studying at Cambridge School.  If the verb is continuous tense, it need to be added "verb to be" before used to?
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Need we add that it be usable in the woods?   1, albeit an old one, contains an example of this odd way of writing. Where I would expect  "..that it would/could/may/should/... be", there is nothing! I feel there is some lost information in here.   Is this an ordinary way to express oneself nowadays, or is it more archaic, or "upper class"? Is there only one meaning to "it be"?   A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages - Alan C. Kay, Proceedings of the ACM National Conference, Boston Aug. 1972
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Source:      There have been seven weeks of protests outside the site from which   "hundreds" of pupils were kept away on Monday.   Why does the sentence say “have been” not  simply “were”?  I think that indicates that the protesters are still protesting untill the moment of writing. Am I correct here?
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Context - One might use it in the following situations:   "An employee has an argument with her boss and a dispute follows." (she gets fired a few weeks later) "A student having an argument with his teacher over his grades takes the problem to the headmaster." (the headmaster doesn't want to get into it and says the teacher is right) "Workers go on strike for a week, get no raise and are considered absent from work."    You can say it to your son/daughter as a prediction: “Be careful mate, remember…(the saying)…  And you can also say it when he/she comes to you for comfort and support: “I told you, mate, they say that........(the saying).
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Possible Duplicate:             For the past few years I've been noticing a curious phenomenon.  People are quite commonly saying things like "... the problem is is that we don't have access to ...".  It appears that the first "is" has been grafted onto the semantic unit of "the problem" and is no longer being perceived as being present, so the speaker has to add the second "is".  I first thought that this might be related to situations where a repeated "is" is valid, such as  ... the question is "Is this our only option?" ...   but it seems to occur mostly in constructs of the form  ... the [x] is that ...   instead.  I seem to be very sensitive to this and hear it several times a day, often on local or national news broadcasts.  In fact, it's now jarring (in a good way) when I hear someone NOT repeating "is".   Is there a name for this phenomenon? Is it as rampant as it appears to me?
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Which one of this two sentences is correct?   I need you to help me do this job I need you to help me to do this job   Can you also provide me some explanation?
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My friend said to me one day: "We have a mice problem at UNI". Is "a mice problem" grammatical as opposed to "a mouse problem"?
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have to must should ought  I found a lot of examples with explanations on using this words applying to people, but not to inanimate objects. In the case of inanimate objects, such explanations as “obligatory”, “moral correctness”, “advise” etc. does not work. What the verbs should be used in the next sentences?  The car _______  turn when the driver turns the steering wheel. The car _______ not start moving spontaneously. The (computer) program _______ solve the equation. If an error occures, the program _______ indicate a message.  I think, different variants are possible and they have different meanings.
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Usage of Some:  Does "some" require a plural or singular verb?
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Recently I ran across the sentence:     "Just why the law prescribed thirty-nine lashes instead of forty or forty-one and so on, must needs remain unanswered."   How did a plural verb like "needs" wind up as an adverb?  Is it alone in this phenomenon, or are there other examples that appear to be an odd misplacement of a second verb, but are actually adverbs as well?
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Why is the phrase "I hope this computer work" unacceptable? The word "hope" makes the phrase subjunctive, so why isn't it correct to use the infinitive verb form?
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What does this phrase mean? And in what cases is it appropriate to use it?
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I am wondering if the following sentence is correct:     We add the information their study provides with to our article.   The context is: their study provides with some information. And we add the information to our article.  I want to keep the word "add", and someone told me that "provides with to" sounds wired...
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I have a sentence which reads     Many people require that every lightbulb within a house have/has a switch.   Is it appropriate to use "have" here so as to utilize the subjunctive mode of the verb "require"?  Or is it more appropriate to use "has" in order to get the (lack of) pluralization in "every lightbulb has..." correct?
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Which one is the correct form?   "all they need is some words"   "all they need are some words"
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I'd like to know if someone has a better word than , for both creating and updating something.  Context: I'm a software developer and I'm trying to think of a clever way to name the function that will initially create an object, and if it's already created, update it.