# мне нужно vs мне надо



## девочка

Hi! I'd like to know the difference between мне нужно and мне надо. I know that they are quite synonyms, but there is maybe a little difference in the meaning. In this case, could you please suggest different examples or contexts? Actually I'm only a beginner but I'm very curious. Thanks in advance!


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## Andrey05

They are synonymous indeed. 
_нужно _is somewhat more formal and sounds a bit more polite.


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## elemika

I adree with Andrey, but if we'd try to distinguish them,
as to me, _*надо*_ could be more impersonal and more categorical,
and it is used more often when there is the external necessity/need.
_*Нужно*_ could be more personal, when we want to express our own needs:

Мне нужно умыться!
Надо, надо умываться по утрам и вечерам...

_Хватит лениться! Надо учиться ! (всем положено учиться, everybody must study, (si deve studiare))
Мне нужно учиться, чтобы получить работу. (учеба мне нужна, I need to study, (devo studiare)...)

Эти правила надо знать. (Bсем положено знать, everybody must know these rules)
Тебе нужно знать эти правила. ( You need to know these rules)
_ 
There are some expressions where they are not interchangeable, 
and we could try to make some search here:
1. Так ему и надо!
2. Нет - и не надо!
.........

I hope, the others will help!


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## Andrey05

Hi Elemika, I agree with your description, but hesitate about the examples:

_Мне нужно учиться, чтобы получить работу._
_Мне надо учиться, чтобы получить работу._

So, _надо_ is just as personal here as _нужно_, isn't it? Same as in:

_Тебе нужно знать эти правила._
_Тебе надо знать эти правила._

Moreover, 

_Эти правила нужно знать!_

is intended for everybody, and _нужно _works perfectly well in there.

To me, it's more the degree of politeness that differentiates _нужно _and _надо_, not personal vs. impersonal.


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## Ptak

They are the same thing to me.


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## Andrey05

Well, when you say to an unemployed person: 

Работать надо! 

It's rather rude, any construction with нужно will sound more polite, I think. 

E.g.: Тебе (б) нужно позвонить в службу занятости.


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## Ptak

Andrey05 said:


> Well, when you say to an unemployed person:
> 
> Работать надо!
> 
> It's rather rude, any construction with нужно will sound more polite, I think.
> 
> E.g.: Тебе (б) нужно позвонить в службу занятости.


What's wrong/less polite with:
_Тебе б надо позвонить в службу занятости_. ?


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## elemika

> They are the same thing to me.





> Hi Elemika, I agree with your description, but hesitate about the examples:
> 
> _Мне нужно учиться, чтобы получить работу._
> _Мне надо учиться, чтобы получить работу._
> 
> So, _надо_ is just as personal here as _нужно_, isn't it? Same as in:
> 
> _Тебе нужно знать эти правила._
> _Тебе надо знать эти правила._


Well, let's try this way:
-Гражданин, купите собаку!
-Да не хочу...Мне не нужно...
-Хочу - не хочу, нужно - не нужно...Надо! Пропадет ведь!

Here "нужно" comes from inside ( у меня нет нужды в собаке, собака мне не нужна), "надо" сomes from outside (необходимость, существующая вне нас)
I agree, they are very close, it's only my attempt 
Let's remember this one: надо - значит, надо!

Andrey, as to my examples, the only thought I tried to express was this one:
if I hear "Надо учиться!" I feel that it's decision of my parents or my chief or somebody else because they need my education..;
if I hear "Нужно учиться!" I take it as advance, because they say that I/everybody need education.
 But of course, it's only my personal opinion


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## Andrey05

Ptak said:


> What's wrong/less polite with:
> _Тебе б надо позвонить в службу занятости_. ?


 
Please consider reading my post carefully before replying. My point was that "Работать надо!" sounds rude, and any other construction with нужно will sound less rude, that's why I think надо sometimes has a stronger meaning (more categorical, as Elemika said).  

As for  _Тебе б надо / Тебе б _нужно, the difference is subtle indeed, and it depends on the way you pronounce the whole sentence: if you stress the second part (_позвонить в службу занятости_), they both sound like an advice, but if you stress *надо, *it becomes slightly more compeling than with нужно, in my opinion.


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## Andrey05

elemika said:


> Well, let's try this way:
> 
> Andrey, as to my examples, the only thought I tried to express was this one:
> if I hear "Надо учиться!" I feel that it's decision of my parents or my chief or somebody else because they need my education..;
> if I hear "Нужно учиться!" I take it as advance, because they say that I/everybody need education.
> But of course, it's only my personal opinion


 
Interesting.
I agree with you completely in that Надо is sometimes more categorical (more compeling, less polite). 
A bit in the direction of "я хочу" vs. "я хотел бы", but not quite.


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## Ptak

Andrey05 said:


> Please consider reading my post carefully before replying.


Why do you think I did't read your post carefully?
You said that "any construction with *нужно* will sound more polite" and gave an example, "_Тебе (б) *нужно* позвонить в службу занятости_."
I asked what is less polite about the variant with "надо": "_Тебе б *надо* позвонить в службу занятости_". To me, they sound the same, and the degree of politeness or rudeness only depends on the intonation of the speaker, not on the word itself.


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## Andrey05

Ptak said:


> Why do you think I did't read your post carefully?
> You said that "any construction with *нужно* will sound more polite, I think" and gave an example, "_Тебе (б) *нужно* позвонить в службу занятости_."
> I asked what is less polite about the variant with "надо": "_Тебе б *надо* позвонить в службу занятости_". To me, they sound the same, and the degree of politeness or rudeness only depends on the intonation of the speaker, not on the word itself.


 
Ptak, I said that any construction with *нужно* would sound more polite than "Работать надо!", and examplified this with "_Тебе (б) *нужно* позвонить в службу занятости_." Do you disagree?

The point is, it's easy to say the two words are the same (in fact, that was my very first reply with some reservations), but there are some cases (which you also find in Elemika's examples) where those words are not interchangeable and where _надо _sounds less polite / more compeling. "Работать надо!" was my example.


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## Ptak

Andrey05 said:


> but there are some cases (which you also find in Elemika's examples) where those words are not interchangeable


Honestly, in all Elemika's examples they are interchangeable to me; probably some examples would sound a bit less idiomatic with another word ("_Так ему и нужно!_" vs. "_Так ему и надо!_"), but it wouldn't change the meaning and/or sound wrong.
The only variant which would sound odd to me with "*нужно*" is "_Нет - и не *надо*_".


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## Andrey05

Ptak said:


> Honestly, in all Elemika's examples they are interchangeable to me; probably some examples would sound a bit less idiomatic with another word ("_Так ему и нужно!_" vs. "_Так ему и надо!_"), but it wouldn't change the meaning and/or sound wrong.
> The only variant which would sound odd to me with "*нужно*" is "_Нет - и не *надо*_".


 
_Нет - и не *надо*_
надо - значит, надо!

I wouldn't use "_Так ему и нужно!_", although it might be a matter of taste. 

Also, to me "Работать нужно!" is not the same as "Работать надо!" (as far as the degree of rudeness is concerned).

But let's see what the other forum members think.


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## девочка

So the difference is very little and, as often, it depends on one's personal experience. It isn't so simple but I think I got the point! I find very interesting the fact of internal/external necessity:



elemika said:


> Here "нужно" comes from inside ( у меня нет нужды в собаке, собака мне не нужна), "надо" сomes from outside (необходимость, существующая вне нас)


 
It reminds me what I studied at school about the difference between _to must_ and _to have to_ at the present... It was said to us something similar, probably that _to must_ is more personal than _to have to_, even if they are quite always interchangeable at the present. Of course, it isn't the same, as the meaning of нужно/надо is nearer to the English _to need._ However, could you ever consider translating it with_ must/have to_?


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## elemika

> Of course, it isn't the same, as the meaning of нужно/надо is nearer to the English _to need._ However, could you ever consider translating it with_ must/have to_?


I'm not sure that нужно/надо = _must/have to  

_We are speaking about nuances_ 

_


> Also, to me "Работать нужно!" is not the same as "Работать надо!"


Надо работать! Надо заставить себя трудиться каждый день! Не хочется, но надо!!! 
Нужно работать!Столько всего интересного еще нужно сделать, лишь бы хватило времени! Не могу сидеть дома, мне нужно работать!

Работать надо! Работать должны все!
Работать нужно! Работа нужна всем!



> "_Так ему и нужно!_" vs. "_Так ему и надо!_"


Так ему и надо , (он это заслужил)!
Так ему и нужно, (ходить туда каждый день)!

I doubt that they are interchangeable


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## Ptak

elemika said:


> Так ему и надо , (он это заслужил)!
> Так ему и нужно, (ходить туда каждый день)!
> 
> I doubt that they are interchangeable


Check trough Google "так ему и нужно" and right away you'll see that it's used in the meaning of the first sentence ("он это заслужил").

But you are right, in "Так ему и нужно, ходить туда каждый день!" one can't use "надо".


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## WordOrder

I think these two words are _duplets_. All the given examples are far-fetched. They prove nothing and confuse only. The choice to use one world over another is the only matter of personal preferences.


			
				elemika said:
			
		

> Так ему и нужно, (ходить туда каждый день)!


Generally, they say _он́о ем́у н́ужно.

Он́о ем́у н́ужно, ́ездить и собир́ать за теб́я все эти бум́ажки‽

_Here we can freely change _н́ужно _on _н́адо_ without changing of the sense.

_Он́о ем́у н́адо, торч́ать там все выходн́ые вм́есто теб́я‽_


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## 過客

Hello, I have come across this pretty old thread... I think, the results of the discussion can be summarized quite simply using English terms.


The word "нужно" is about a need (please compare: "мне нужен гвоздь" — "I need a nail"); the word "надо" is about a must (please compare: "надобность" — "necessity", but "нужность" - "ability to be useful"). Of course, if I need to do something, then I must do this; and if I must do something, then I need to do this. Therefore, the words are interchangeable in terms of accuracy of describing the actual world: they both describe the same world, but from different positions. Yet there are questions of nuances and personal preferences: different people might prefer to make an emphasis on different aspects of the same situation. For example, it may be kind of rude to say to a person that he must do something; it may be more polite to say that there is a need for him to do this.

Well, I kindly hope the thread won't become less pretty after my chiming in. 


Adieu!


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## oirobi

These two are perfectly interchangeable. The only slight difference is that _надо_ should be avoided in more formal contexts, as Andrey05 pointed out.

In the example above ("_-Гражданин, купите собаку!_.."), if you replace "надо" with "нужно" and vice versa, nothing will change.

 "Так ему/ей/им... и надо" is a set expression, so here the words are "cast in stone", and if you change it to "нужно" it will sound a bit weird, imho.


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