Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jays]

Are all of the following sentences correct?
---- the following --------------
He didn't have to go there.
He need not have gone there.
He didn't need to go there.

[Sarraa]

The first and third sentences are correct, but the second one needs to be altered a little, because in your sentence 'have' is in the past tense and 'need' is in the present. You need to have both the same. It would make more sense as ''He needed not to have gone there''.
Hope I'm right, lol.
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[CP]

Sorry, Sarraa, but I must disagree. It is quite correct to say, "He need not have gone there" to mean, "He did not need to go there" or "He did not have to go there." A native speaker would not say, "He needed not to have gone there" unless telling a story in the past tense, but even then you would see "He need not have gone there" more often than not.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Sarraa]

Thanks for the correction, CP ; )
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لا إلــه إلا الله مــحــمّد رســول الله