# צריך / צריך את



## Drink

Since צריך is not actually a verb, which of the following is correct and why?:

אני *צריך את* הספר.
אני *צריך* הספר.


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## arielipi

Both are correct, the second is archaic/formal


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## k8an

We use the first in the vast majority of cases.


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## airelibre

What makes you think it is not a verb? It has a conjugation in the present tense like one:
צריך, צריכה, צריכים, צריכות


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## Drink

airelibre said:


> What makes you think it is not a verb? It has a conjugation in the present tense like one:
> צריך, צריכה, צריכים, צריכות



That's not conjugation, that's gender inflection. All adjectives behave that way, and it is an adjective according to most dictionaries.


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## k8an

It's a weird one. We conjugate it as a verb in future tense (אני אצטרך) but as an adjective in the past tense (הייתי צריך).


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## Drink

k8an said:


> It's a weird one. We conjugate it as a verb in future tense (אני אצטרך) but as an adjective in the past tense (הייתי צריך).



I guess that's suppletion because if צריך were a verb, it definitely is not from binyan התפעל.


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## arielipi

k8an said:


> It's a weird one. We conjugate it as a verb in future tense (אני אצטרך) but as an adjective in the past tense (הייתי צריך).


זה כי היום יש נטייה לדבר בהווה מתמשך שפשוט לא עובד טוב בעברית.
היה גר, היה הולך
ואיך אפשר בלי להזכיר את הדיבור העילג בחדשות של "ואז אתה נכנס לחדר ורואה שבעצם, החדר עכשיו עולה באש, מה אתה עושה

מכל מקום, אפשר להגיד נצרכתי.


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## Albert Schlef

I don't know to answer your question. 

Interestingly, I see some people who are very knowledgeable in Hebrew use the construct "הריסתם את הבית גרמה ל...". Maybe it's irrelevant to your question. This construct deserves a new thread, though.

And maybe this thread, in which somebody informs me that "אין לי את הכסף לזה" is valid(?), might be of use. See the links at the last post there.


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## arbelyoni

That _is_ a good question.

אני צריך את הספר "feels" right and natural in colloquial Hebrew, but that doesn't mean that it's correct in formal registers (זקוק ל and יש ל are good formal equivalents). On the other hand, while "יש/אין את" phrases are known to be controversial, I never read or heard anything similar about צריך את.

I had to look up a bit and found out that צריך is a Mishnaic word and that "צריך את" (with all the different inflections of both צריך and את) is very common in Mishnaic texts (for example: שורו צריך את האפר, "his ox needs the ashes", Bava Kama, Talmud Yerushalmi). It is also very common in Israeli poetry, literature and of course journalism, but I couldn't find examples in early Modern Hebrew (that doesn't mean that there aren't any).

Aramaic and Mishnaic Hebrew use the pattern קטיל as equivalent to בינוני פעול (for example: דעלך *סני *לחברך לא תעביד, or in Hebrew: מה ש*שנוא* עליך…), so I guess that צריך was perceived as a form of the verb back then.


Albert Schlef said:


> ...Interestingly, I see some people who are very knowledgeable in Hebrew use the construct "הריסתם את הבית גרמה ל...". Maybe it's irrelevant to your question. This construct deserves a new thread, though...


It's also prevalent in the bible:
כְּמַהְפֵּכַת אֱלֹהִים אֶת-סְדֹם וְאֶת-עֲמֹרָה (Amos 4:11, Isaiah 13:19, Jeremiah 50:40).


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> I had to look up a bit and found out that צריך is a Mishnaic word and that "צריך את" (with all the different inflections of both צריך and את) is very common in Mishnaic texts (for example: שורו צריך את האפר, "his ox needs the ashes", Bava Kama, Talmud Yerushalmi).


Is צריך את really common in the Mishna (or the Gemara, as the quote about שורו צריך את)? The usual form is -צריך ל.


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## Drink

What seems odd to me is that if צריך is a (Aramaic-style) passive participle, then it can't take a direct object, which is what את indicates. So ל- makes more sense to me logically.


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