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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

It needs done

131 replies

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 14:34

I am sure in the past we used to say “it needs to be done.” Or “it needs doing”.

Why do people now say “it needs done”?

I hate it.

Aibu?

OP posts:
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Coldhot · 06/08/2026 11:47

RafaFan · 06/08/2026 11:04

Those all sound totally fine to me. What sounds wrong with them - should it be "the car needs to be washed"?

Show quote history

Yes, exactly, or ‘the car needs washing’.

LuckyHazelFox · 06/08/2026 11:09

RafaFan · 06/08/2026 11:04

Those all sound totally fine to me. What sounds wrong with them - should it be "the car needs to be washed"?

Show quote history

They are past tense verbs which are out of kilter with the action that needs doing.

RafaFan · 06/08/2026 11:04

ThisOneLife · 05/08/2026 19:00

People say this, or a version of this all the time. I hate it too!

The car needs washed
The dog needs walked
The washing needs sorted.
etc, etc

Show quote history

Those all sound totally fine to me. What sounds wrong with them - should it be "the car needs to be washed"?

LuckyHazelFox · 06/08/2026 10:46

Myblueclematis · 05/08/2026 15:00

I've seen it on FB posts, needs gone, needs done etc. but never heard anyone actually say it thankfully.

The needs gone thing on FB is awful. It's become as common as the misspelling of lose (loose).

Poppycorn123 · 06/08/2026 03:58

In NI they always do this too.

AutumnHazel · 06/08/2026 03:56

ThisOneLife · 05/08/2026 19:00

People say this, or a version of this all the time. I hate it too!

The car needs washed
The dog needs walked
The washing needs sorted.
etc, etc

Show quote history

Not in Suffolk they don’t.

AutumnHazel · 06/08/2026 03:52

BauhausOfEliott · 05/08/2026 15:03

I'm interested that people are saying they've never heard this because oddly, the one place I ever see it is actually Mumsnet!

I usually notice it in threads where people are bickering about housework. People will say things like 'A toilet needs bleached every day' or 'DH hasn't unloaded the dishwasher and it needs done before dinner' or something. The other day there was one where someone said 'Did it need cleaned?'

To me, the only normal way of phrasing it is 'Did it need to be cleaned?' or (and this is how I would say it) 'Did it need cleaning?' so I kind of assumed it was a regionally specific thing but no idea which region. I don't find it annoying, because dialects vary and that's fine. But I do always notice it.

Or maybe it's one of those things like people suddenly, nationwide, starting to say 'I'm going gym' or 'I'm going Tesco' instead of 'I'm going to the gym' or 'I'm going to Tesco'.

Edited

Not everyone who posts on MN lives on MN! I’m probably on here 2-3 hours a week and have still never seen it on here until now!

EleanorMc67 · 06/08/2026 03:51

RafaFan · 05/08/2026 16:52

I had never thought of it as Scots specifically, but it certainly sounds entirely normal to my Scottish ears. It must just be becoming more common outwith Scotland. Now there's another good Scottish word...

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Outwith is a great - & very useful - word. I'm hoping that it appears in one of the baby naming threads sometime very soon ...

EleanorMc67 · 06/08/2026 03:41

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 16:12

Have you heard :

It needs washed
It needs cut
it needs hoovered
It needs fixed
It needs finished

All of these are completely natural to me as a Scot and I can’t emphasise enough how foreign it would feel to me to say “the grass needs cutting” or “the shelf needs fixing”

I am generally well spoken and use correct grammar (my Dad was a radio newsreader). I never say “I seen her in town” or “I done the test”. But using the past participle wth the verb “need” does not feel incorrect to me. Surely it’s just a contraction of “it needs TO BE washed” etc and describes the end state of the action- (a washed car, cut grass etc) Why would a present participle such as “washing” be more grammatically correct?

Edited
Show quote history

Exactly - it's just a contraction, where over time a part of the phrasing has been dropped/swallowed, as in "It needs (to be) done".

(I'm Northern Irish, living in Scotland for nearly 40 years - but my partner is from Manchester & says it far more than I do!)

Coldhot · 06/08/2026 00:10

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 20:25

Are you suggesting that “the floor needs hoovered” comes from Gaelic? I’d be very surprised if that were true. In any event, Gaelic was never spoken by the entire population of Scotland so the chances of it having influenced modern Scottish speech patterns are pretty remote.

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I’d also be surprised if it came from Gaelic, which is why I asked upthread if pp meant it came from Scots.

Barkleyspaubles · 05/08/2026 23:59

I was sat/stood is non standard /grammatically incorrect. Verb “to be” plus -ing ending. You wouldn’t, for example, I imagine say “I was ran for the bus” or “we were smoked in the bike shed” so why “We were sat”?. It’s common in Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire and a few other middle to northern areas. But it’s getting so widespread now -even from R4 presenters-(I’m glaring at you, Amol)that it will soon be standard through usage.

ApplesinmyPocket · 05/08/2026 22:59

DontbesorrybeGiles · 05/08/2026 19:45

I hear it in Devon. Where it now feels like the majority of people say “I was sat/stood”. It’s a losing battle.

We've lost that one, I'm afraid. Nearly every post on MN now includes at least one sat or stood sentence, including posts where the whole sentence structure has to be remade to include it, and the BBC and mainstream press use it too (maybe not the Times or Telegraph? except as reported speech?)

"we were sat in the front row seats...." you've already said you were in seats, so why shove in the sat, except to satisfy some new rule that seems to have sprung up in the last decade that sat or stood has to be used once erroneously in every post? (I know that's not a great example, there are better.)

I once had the inkling to post a poll, 'Do you think 'I was sat' is correct?' as I think many people MUST think it is, it's so ubiquitous and doesn't seem 'regional, and hardly ever gets pointed out the way things like 'we would of' are.

But I didn't.

ReadingInBed88 · 05/08/2026 21:43

Another newish one is 'needs gone' when people are giving something away. As on 'needs gone asap'. Irritating and sounds so demanding!

Doodledoggle · 05/08/2026 20:52

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 20:33

She lives in Scotland.

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Yes and I now see from the thread that it's regional.

I still don't understand how a published author can write it though!

TRNSMTtaxi · 05/08/2026 20:52

It genuinely feels completely correct to me —and as a dr it’s a phrase I’d use in professional discussions (eg mrs blog’s legs need dressed / mr smiths blood pressure needs checked) Totally different to real grammatical errors like ‘would of’ ‘could of’ or ‘they’ve went’ which I would never use. Gill Simms lives somewhere round Glasgow I think so not surprised she uses this phrasing too!

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 20:33

Doodledoggle · 05/08/2026 20:10

I HATE this and read it on here all the time.

But the person who surprises me every time is the Peter and Jane author Gill Sims. She uses this turn of phrase all the time in her blogs and it makes me want to scream!!!

She lives in Scotland.

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 20:30

Crusttt · 05/08/2026 18:57

Agree that 'the dishwasher needs emptied' would be used in Scotland by people who would never say 'they've went' but from a sociolinguistics view, dialectal speech is not incorrect. It is non-standard rather than substandard. If you study individual dialects, they are as rule-governed and complex as Standard English.

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By incorrect I mean unacceptable in formal speech eg a professional context or in a written document or exam paper. For example, my Dad would never have dreamed of saying “they’ve went” when he was hosting a radio news programme. It’s neither here nor there that the “non-standard” form follows rules.

UhOhRatPoo · 05/08/2026 20:25

malware · 05/08/2026 17:11

Other languages have always influenced English. It's a mongrel language composed of French, Latin., Old Norse, Old English and more besides. "It needs done" and "I'm going gym" relate back to other languages that Scottish and Asian people speak. I don't know how you can be surprised (let alone annoyed) that the language structures of bilingual people bleed back into English.

Personally, I love that you can hear the accent of the people saying those phrases from written text.

Edited

Are you suggesting that “the floor needs hoovered” comes from Gaelic? I’d be very surprised if that were true. In any event, Gaelic was never spoken by the entire population of Scotland so the chances of it having influenced modern Scottish speech patterns are pretty remote.

topcat2014 · 05/08/2026 20:25

The general public are shockingly thick

LividSummery · 05/08/2026 20:15

Regional.

I went to uni in the north east and first heard someone say "my hair wants washed." Was totally baffled for some time.

Doodledoggle · 05/08/2026 20:10

I HATE this and read it on here all the time.

But the person who surprises me every time is the Peter and Jane author Gill Sims. She uses this turn of phrase all the time in her blogs and it makes me want to scream!!!

Newpostnewnamenew · 05/08/2026 19:49

I would’ve said previously that Yanbu, however I have learnt that it’s a Scottish thing (eg “the house needs tidied”) so I’ll let them off.

ThingsCouldBeEasier · 05/08/2026 19:46

Never heard this.

DontbesorrybeGiles · 05/08/2026 19:45

I hear it in Devon. Where it now feels like the majority of people say “I was sat/stood”. It’s a losing battle.

FlayOtters · 05/08/2026 19:41

still not as bad as 'get to fuck' - that one makes my skin crawl (and not because of the swearing!)