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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:
AllMyExesWearRolexes · 05/08/2026 16:10

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:09

Does it sound weird to you when an English person says it?

Like if I tried to say, “yo dude wassup how’s it hangin’’” it would fall flat in my Radio 4 southern accent.

Show quote history

It doesn't jar on me because I know the Scots derivation and that it's not a mistake.
My mum's mum was Scots so I grew up (in Cornwall) hearing a lot of Scots phrases and Cornish dialect and accepting them as part of everyday conversation.
When I went to university in London English people found my vocabulary most exotic!

Mumwithbaggage · 05/08/2026 16:09

I'm going for a toilet is the strangest one I've heard around here.

Linenspots · 05/08/2026 16:07

Yep, hear it a lot here too (East Mids).

I've also been seeing pictures posted on social media by hairdressers, showing their clients' new hairstyles with "Beryl/Sarah/Polly had her hair did today" as the tagline. The first time I saw this, I assumed it was a terrible mistake, but I've noticed a few posts featuring the same abomination. Whaat!

icingonmycupcake · 05/08/2026 16:01

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:09

Does it sound weird to you when an English person says it?

Like if I tried to say, “yo dude wassup how’s it hangin’’” it would fall flat in my Radio 4 southern accent.

Show quote history

I've lived in Scotland for over 50yrs and never heard 'it needs done'. 🤔

Teenytini · 05/08/2026 16:01

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:12

I’m not the best person to ask. For twenty years, I really couldn’t cope with people saying “squeezed”. I genuinely thought - and instinctively felt certain - the word was “squozen.”

As in: freeze, frozen.

therefore

squeeze, squozen

And I assumed this was a hangover from my mum’s Yorkshire dialect but apparently not!

That’s made me laugh so loudly, the whole bus is looking at me!

LondonLass2026 · 05/08/2026 15:51

They say that up here in the north east.

It's annoying.

Bob12345677 · 05/08/2026 15:46

My husband uses this and I find it very annoying. He does write properly though ;)

He's from Cumbria so I always thought it was a regional thing.

Floatlikeafeather2 · 05/08/2026 15:45

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 14:59

@Crusttt ahhh maybe it sounds better in a beautiful accent! I actually feel better knowing it does have roots in UK dialect. I thought it was going to be some horrible Americanism.

”I was sat [or stood] waiting” sounds totally normal to me!

"I was sat waiting" sounds just as jarring to me. It is grammatically completely wrong, unless there's an offchance that you were standing somewhere, waiting, and somebody came along, picked you up, bent your legs into a sitting position and plonked you down onto a chair. It's not even a dialectical thing. It's just wrong.
It needs done/finished/said/mended is also common in Manchester/Salford.

BEAchDays2 · 05/08/2026 15:43

See also; needs gone.

PhotoDad · 05/08/2026 15:41

I hadn't heard it before moving to the North-East (twenty years ago), and it was everywhere! I can confirm that it's absolutely standard here, and further north in Scotland.

dreamingofgoodhair · 05/08/2026 15:41

It’s regional. I worked with someone from Northern Ireland who used to say it. Don’t know if other regions say it.

Kimmers4334 · 05/08/2026 15:38

My Scottish stepmum says this but I’d never heard English people using it until the last few years and it doesn’t sound right to me.

It needs hoovered, it needs washed etc.
I would say it needs to be hoovered or it needs hoovering, it needs washing.

I like regional things but I don’t really understand why this has been adopted elsewhere when it’s not standard grammar.

Roseonthebalcony · 05/08/2026 15:38

I always think people aren’t very well travelled or met many different people when they find speech differences odd.

I moved from south to west Manchester and the difference in accents is huge.
I’ve also worked abroad with customers from all over the UK and you get used to all the different dialects.

MaIeficent · 05/08/2026 15:34

Devilsmommy · 05/08/2026 14:42

I've heard it and yes it's bloody annoying. I'm West Midlands in case it's regional 🤷

I'm WM too and have defo heard people saying "it needs done right away".

Jimmyneutronsforehead · 05/08/2026 15:31

I wrote this exact complaint on another thread and got shouted down as it's colloquial, but it just makes no sense to me.

The baby needs fed.

The plants need watered.

The grass needs cut.

It just takes me back to how we'd get told off in our English exams in primary school if we didn't use the right tense for the sentence we were forming.

I am also from Yorkshire and I have a very thick coal miners Barnsley accent, and the way I say things isn't how I write things, because I know when I write things it needs to make sense to whoever is reading what it is that I am saying.

There's also a global literacy crisis, so I don't believe it is colloquial in every single instance.

JudyTeeny · 05/08/2026 15:30

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:22

@Arlanymor I was joking! Sorry the humour was too dry.

Im going to Edinburgh for a weekend soon. I have already had to promise my family I will NOT attempt a Scots accent, tempted as I am to give it a go.

I went to Edinburgh with a friend, who thinks she is brilliant at doing accents (she isn't). She kept doing a Scottish accent and when she made a long phone call doing the accent, I had to walk away!

hugasaurus · 05/08/2026 15:30

Interested to know if it’s also used in Ireland actually, as there are often a lot of commonalities between Scottish and Irish regional dialects.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 05/08/2026 15:28

It’s regional isn’t it?

JudyTeeny · 05/08/2026 15:27

I hear it mostly in Scotland, never here (Cheshire). I don't like it either.

hugasaurus · 05/08/2026 15:27

As others have said, totally standard in Scotland. Also in Pennsylvania, I discovered a few years ago!

dontmalbeconme · 05/08/2026 15:26

Where I live it tends to be said by a particular segment of society. The ones that have a 'Chester Draws' or 'Christmas ball-balls' that 'need gone'. Not a regional variation where I am, most people wouldn't dream of using it here. I can believe it may be in other regions, though, and language does evolve. It grates on me, but I guess it's not really important if everyone can understand what's being said.

Arlanymor · 05/08/2026 15:25

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:22

@Arlanymor I was joking! Sorry the humour was too dry.

Im going to Edinburgh for a weekend soon. I have already had to promise my family I will NOT attempt a Scots accent, tempted as I am to give it a go.

Glad to hear it! Tone is hard on here unless you 'know' the poster. Enjoy!

Original poster
EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:22

@Arlanymor I was joking! Sorry the humour was too dry.

Im going to Edinburgh for a weekend soon. I have already had to promise my family I will NOT attempt a Scots accent, tempted as I am to give it a go.

OP posts:
LoafofSellotape · 05/08/2026 15:21

EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:04

@PolkaDotPorridge yes, “it needs gone” on FB market is a perfect example!

“Priced for a quick sale” was what people used to say, wasn’t it?

It's due to FB, people see it on there and then copy it, usually by the same people who use yourself instead of you. It is regional but it seems to be used all over now.

Original poster
EllaAtLarge · 05/08/2026 15:19

Duckiewasthefirstniceguy · 05/08/2026 15:13

I’m sorry, what?! 😂

Show quote history

I have stopped now but I still cringe when I have to say “I squeezed the lemon for you.” It still feels like it should be “I squoze that lemon.”

I don’t have a clue why i have latched onto a word that doesn’t exist!

I wondered if “it needs doing” was similarly just wrong in my head and it should always have been “it needs done.”

OP posts: