# I don't have/need to ...



## Abu Talha

Hello,
I was wondering how to express this meaning in MSA. For example, "I don't need/have to get a haircut because my hair is already short."

I came up with: لا أحتاج إلى أن أفعل كذا  but it doesn't sound idiomatic.
How about: لا علي أن أفعل كذا لأن ...?

Thanks.


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## clevermizo

I like the version with لا أحتاج but it seems complicated with لا أحتاج إلى أن ... I would just say لا أحتاج إلى قص الشعر لأن شعري قصير.


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## Abu Talha

Thanks clevermizo, 

I just thought of "ليس من الواجب أن " and "ليس من اللازم أن " and they seem to have quite a few google hits.

 "لا احتاج إلى " seems to be used where the speaker actually does not _need_ some object, but maybe it could be more general than that?

By the way, what are your thoughts about "already". I notice you didn't translate it. Is this because it's usually understood from context and not said explicitly?

Thanks again!


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## إسكندراني

لا يلزمني فعل كذا
ليس عليّ فعل كذا
ليس من الواجب عليّ فعل كذا

لا أحتاج sounds wrong. It's a quirk of English that 'need to' and 'have to' are interchangeable. They are different in literal meaning.


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## Abu Talha

شكرا أخى الاسكندراني!


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## memori

من الممكن ان نقول
انا لست في حاجه إلي فعل كذا
ليس من الضروري فعل كذا 
لايتحتم علي فعل كذا


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## Mahaodeh

إسكندراني said:


> لا أحتاج sounds wrong. It's a quirk of English that 'need to' and 'have to' are interchangeable. They are different in literal meaning.



Why wrong? It's used in MSA as well as in classical Arabic in this meaning - not to mention colloquial Arabic.


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## إسكندراني

Mahaodeh said:


> Why wrong? It's used in MSA as well as in classical Arabic in this meaning - not to mention colloquial Arabic.


It feels completely different from 'need to' in English; we can use it if we literally mean 'need to'.
أحتاج أن أشتري مسطرة
يلزمني شراء مسطرة
both work and aren't too far apart I suppose, but in English we can effectively _always_ say 'need' for 'must', which isn't the case in other languages - so just be careful.


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## Mahaodeh

Well, as a general rule I don't think it's a good idea to pick one translation for each phrase - translation is almost always context based that's why it's important to provide context .


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## إسكندراني

الله ينوّر عليكي يا مها، هوّ كدا بالضّبط
I have a counter-example now.
Supervisors need to keep children under control.

المشرفون يحتاجون إلى إبقاء الأطفال تحت السيطرة
doesn't work.

على المشرفين إبقاء الأطفال تحت السيطرة
does work.


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## clevermizo

إسكندراني said:


> الله ينوّر عليكي يا مها، هوّ كدا بالضّبط
> I have a counter-example now.
> Supervisors need to keep children under control.
> 
> المشرفون يحتاجون إلى إبقاء الأطفال تحت السيطرة
> doesn't work.
> 
> على المشرفين إبقاء الأطفال تحت السيطرة
> does work.




I agree with everything we've said in this thread about context, as a moderator especially  , but do you think that قص الشعر is not something that someone might يحتاج إليه? For example, when I say "I need a haircut" in English, I'm being emphatic - saying I need it the way I need food to eat or something, not just that "I should have a haircut" or "I have to have a haircut". Maybe my hair is too long or out of control. But you think you can't use it here in Arabic? You mean it wouldn't occur to you to be بحاجة إلى قص شعر?


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## إسكندراني

clevermizo said:


> For example, when I say "I need a haircut" in English, I'm being emphatic - saying I need it the way I need food to eat or something, not just that "I should have a haircut" or "I have to have a haircut". Maybe my hair is too long or out of control. But you think you can't use it here in Arabic? You mean it wouldn't occur to you to be بحاجة إلى قص شعر?


We can use بحاجة; just not everywhere we can in English.
'Need' for me means something distinct from someone who is 'on a mission to cut his hair because he must' عليه قصّ شعره but they are very close I suppose. How we feel them is subjective. 
لازم أقصّ شعري is stronger in Egyptian than محتاج اقصّ شعري the way I use it anyway.


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## Kinan

لا حاجة لي لقص شعري


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## Destiny2000

انا لا أحتاج أن أقص شعري - انا ما أحتاج اني أقص شعري  is informal
أنا لست بحاجه الى قص شعري - انا لست في حاجة الى قص شعري -   is formal


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## Abu Talha

For the record, as the OP, I was using "don't need to" with the English meaning of "don't have to".

Specifically, I was looking of a negative of the commonly used "يجب عليّ أن " or "عليّ أن ".

I think that in this case, people are leaning towards saying that there is some overlap between "need" and "have" in Arabic too but it is much less than in English.

Thanks for all your replies. They are very helpful.


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## aurelien.demarest

Hi guys,

could you tell me if the usage of "to have to" is correct in this sentence?

When the teacher enters into the room where i work i have to stand up.
عندما يدخل المدرس الغرفة حيث أعمل عليَّ ان أكون يقف

thanks in advance
Aurélien


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## cherine

aurelien.demarest said:


> When the teacher enters into the room where i work i have to stand up.
> عندما يدخل المدرس الغرفة حيث أعمل عليَّ ان أكون يقف


Bonjour Aurélien,
Si tu me permets quelques conseils:

First, you need to be careful with the pronouns you use. When you wrote يقف , you needed to ask yourself whom does that yaa2 refer to. If you speak about yourself, you need to keep the pronouns consistent: أقف . Also, you don't need the verb يكون here.

The sentence should then be عليّ أن أقف or يجب أن أقف .
For the first part, "where I work", you can say الغرفة التي أعمل فيها and the meaning would be clearer.


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## aurelien.demarest

Hi Cherine,

many thanks for your help. Indeed I was not sure at all either for يقف or  أكون 
The reason is I just followed the "intuition" because while for عليَّ  I followed the suggestions of the members of the forum (how to say "to have to").
I don't have properly understood the correctest way to continue the sentence (like "i have to stand up" or "we have to work", "I have to wake up early" etc..etc.) 
So I tried by reasoning to reuse   أكون   + verb which is a structure I saw last time. However it was not correct in this case 

If you have a link to a grammatical explanation on this topic (how to say "to have to do something") with the different possible rules it would be very helpful Cherine...

Enjoy your day
Aurélien


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## cherine

I'm afraid I don't have a link, but check the resources sticky, there are some useful websites that explain grammar well and with examples.
As for this structure, to be on/in the safe side, go for the structure يجب أن + the conjugated verb: يجب أن أخرج، يجب أن تذاكر، يجب أن نعمل، يجب أن تحافظوا على النظافة، يجب أن تَحْرِصْنَ على المواعيد ...etc.
You can keep the verb يكون for descriptions, like يجب أن يكون المكان مرتبًا، يجب أن نكون حريصين على المواعيد، يجب أن يكون التلاميذ منضبطين ...etc. But if these will confuse you, then stick with the other structure.


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## aurelien.demarest

Thank you Cherine 
Aurélien


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