# Necessity: 必要, 義務



## AmaryllisBunny

I have seen the following constructions and was wondering if there were any difference.

In this case 「必要」＆「義務」take on the meaning compulsory. But is there a difference between the two?

•大部分の学校で、英語は義務である。
•大部分の学校で、英語は必要である。

Is it possible to use plainly 「必要です」？or replace the 「である」with 「がある」？

I've seen this as well and am wondering why the article is 「で」and not 「が」。
•規定通りに必要である。(That which is compulsory/required by rule.)

Thank you for your help ：D！

日本語が余りできないので、英語で回答して下さい。本当に有り難うございます！


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## karlalou

「大部分の学校で、英語は義務である」「大部分の学校で、英語は必要である」sound like correct but I think it's actually 「ほとんどの学校で、英語は必須[or 必須科目]である」

大部分 means 'most of the *part*'. You can say「この学校の大部分の生徒は…」「この学校の大部分の授業は…」But to mean 'most of the schools', we say ほとんどの[or たいていの, 大体の, 多くの, 大半の, 大概の]学校.

I guess 義務である and 必要である are saying virtually the same thing as 必須である in this context, but there's some differences. Roughly 義務である means compulsory, 必要である means necessary, 必須である means required.

The difference between である and です、ます is just matter of style. But it's better you stick with either one through the whole work, or you should differentiate the use accordingly such as for explanations です、ます style and for general statements である style.

規定通りに必要である is saying "It's necessary"
規定通りに必要がある is saying "There's a necessity"
So they should be used accordingly.


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## Arturia

In this context, 義務 sounds like English is a required subject in most schools.
必要 sounds like English is important and so students should learn it in most schools.


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## AmaryllisBunny

@karlalou,

I selected these examples from http://ejje.weblio.jp/ Is this website not very reliable?

"Most of the part" in English doesn't really make sense. If it were "for the most part" I think it would be fine. I don't think I would ever say, "there is a necessity" so that is my problem with Japanese. It doesn't really work well in English. In the same way in Japanese one would say 「私は頭が痛い」　instead of 　「私の頭が痛い」 "as for me my head hurts" vs what would be stated in English "my head hurts."


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## karlalou

Really? I mean 'most of the part of something'. Ah.. 'most part of something'?
部分 means part.

Actually, I found the sentence at the site, and they are asking the visitors to check if they are correct usage or not, so I clicked on the not-very-good (the thumb down) icon. 

I think Weblio is fairly good site, but 大辞泉 has been around since long before the internet, and デジタル大辞泉 says about 大部分 like this.

Weblio also says 大部分 as this.

Maybe people use 大部分の〜 like the example sentences you got, thinking all schools as the whole. Just I feel it's odd, and I believe the two dictionary definitions also support the idea of mine.


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## AmaryllisBunny

do you know of a better resource for Eng/Jp ?

Could you please give me an example of when it would be more appropriate to use "…必要である" than "…必要がある" ?


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## karlalou

Oh.. I've been mistaken 大辞泉 for 大辞林.
大辞泉 is new, came out after the Internet, but by one of Japan's well-trusted publishers, 小学館.
Weblio is online only dictionary, but I think it's a decent company, too.. ^^;
(広辞苑 is the oldest big Japanese dictionary, but they seems to be not providing any dictionary on the net.)

I think you can trust this site, 日本語検定. For dictionaries, I use デジタル大辞泉 provided at Goo, and sometimes I end up with Weblio from Google search. The thing is that, I think, Japanese grammar is not so deeply organized to be taught yet like highly demanded English..


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## karlalou

AmaryllisBunny said:


> Could you please give me an example of when it would be more appropriate to use "…必要である" than "…必要がある" ?


Let me see…
Your example, 規定通りに必要である, doesn't say 'what' is necessary, so you can switch this で with が, but for example,
we would say 審査*が*規定どおりに必要である(=a review is needed), but we never say 審査*が*規定どおりに必要*が*ある. It should be 規定どおりに審査*の*必要*が*ある(=there's a need for a review).

審査*が*／規定通りに必要*で*ある (= ~ is needed)

規定通りに審査の必要*が*／ある (= There's a need for ~)


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## AmaryllisBunny

Ah, thank you so much! Also for your phrasing, I am still not quite understanding it. What do you mean by, "most of the part of something?" Could you give me an example in English? Do you mean "most of its components?" "Most of what it is made up of?"


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## karlalou

Yes. "Most of its components".
So I feel uneasy to use 大部分 when the whole is not very clear.


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## AmaryllisBunny

Thank you very much karlalou  .


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