[Grammar] Need(s)

[Mr.Lucky_One]

How to say right, "He/She/It needs something" or "He/She/It need something"?
If both of them are possible which form is more common in English nowdays?

 

[emsr2d2]

Why do you think it would be "need"?

He/she/it are all third person singular and therefore they take the verb form with the "s" on the end in the present tense. The verb matches the subject of the sentence, not the object.

Note that I am excluding the "subjunctive voice" (note that we don't technically have the subjunctive in English). In those cases you might see "Should he need something, I'm sure we will be able to find it for him".

 

[Mr.Lucky_One]

As far as I know ''need" may be either a modal verb or a regular verb without changing its meaning.
I do think saying "He need do something." is correct, but I am not sure if it is correct to say "He need something.". It seems to me that I should use "needs" when a noun or pronoun comes after "need" but I've just wanted to make it clear to me.

And I'd like to ask one more question about using "need". Does "need" as a modal verb have the past form?
Is it correct to make a question like this: "Needed he go somewhere?"?

 

[5jj]

The modal NEED is rarely used in the affirmative. He need do something is unnatural.