2

If one came home a little tired and emotional and knocked over the gatepost, the next morning one could say any of these things:

The gate needs fixing. (1)

The gate needs to be fixed. (2)

First, does the first construction have a name? That is, what part of speech is "Fixing" in this usage? It's a bit like a noun, as in, "I need a drink;" but it seems that it's special because it comes from the verb "to fix."

Secondly, has the use of this construction increased dramatically recently?

I seem to hear it all the time now, particularly in speech. I used to feel it was a British English thing, but I hear it in USA too. I hear things like this all the time now, "The fire needs putting out." "The shed needs painting." "The list needs sorting." etc.

To be clear, I'm asking if usage (1) has recently increased dramatically in usage over method (2). I am sure I have perceived such an increase. I was also interested in whether there's a name for "fixing" or "painting" or "sorting" when used like this.

Also, to clarify, I'm not saying the "needs fixing" construction is new. I can remember hearing it all my life, back to the 1950s. I'm asking whether there's been a recent dramatic increase in how often people say it compared to the alternatives, such as, "the car needs to be fixed."

Thanks

Flynn
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  • Unclear. Are you talking about the use of the word "needs" or the use of such expressions as excuses? – Hot Licks Sep 15 '17 at 19:23
  • @KristinaLopez So what did they say before? Was it "the gate needs to be fixed" perhaps? Is the present participle, following "needs", really a new development? Seems to have been in use as long as I can remember. – WS2 Sep 15 '17 at 21:00
  • These Google Ngrams seem to indicate not.... – Edwin Ashworth Sep 15 '17 at 21:10
  • As do these. / These are complement clauses (ing-form or to-infinitive). – Edwin Ashworth Sep 15 '17 at 21:14
  • Also with past tense - 'The gate needs fixed'. A few related questions. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/24163/how-are-needs-to-be-washed-needs-washing-and-the-regional-variant-needs-w , https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5407/central-pennsylvanian-english-speakers-what-are-the-limitations-on-the-needs-w , https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/68365/unusual-sentence-construction , https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27976/omitting-to-be , https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/24163/how-are-needs-to-be-washed-needs-washing-and-the-regional-variant-needs-w – Phil Sweet Sep 15 '17 at 21:35
  • @PhilSweet - “needs fixed” is the one that really bothers me. – Jim Sep 15 '17 at 21:44
  • @EdwinAshworth These NGram charts are very odd. They seem to suggest that no one was doing anything with batteries prior to 1961. Moreover I don't see the point you are making, since "battery needs replacing" appears, from the chart, to have been around as long as "battery needs to be replaced" - which comes as no surprise whatever. – WS2 Sep 15 '17 at 22:17
  • @WS2 It's the shape of the 'the battery needs replacing' graph (not exactly exponential) that provides evidence that the use of the construction is hardly increasing dramatically. I added the other graph merely as a comparator; obviously some rise in the usages will have taken place since the advent of batteries. The rises are simultaneous; that of the to-infinitive variant is easily the steeper. / I agree that the flatlines before 1961 are rather surprising. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 15 '17 at 22:31
  • I remember hearing from my grandpa that "needs some fixing" became prevalent after the song, "Calling You", and now I hear it like a set phrase. Can we say any other -ing form usage is an application used over time? OED lists "fixing" as mass noun [3] and it seems to me "needs (some) fixing" set a new standard, some time in the last century, maybe? I'm way too young to argue for that so I'm just hinting at some of that. – wordsalad Sep 16 '17 at 02:44
  • Well, Ngram shows it really looks like that. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Needs+some+fixing&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cneeds%20some%20fixing%3B%2Cc0 – wordsalad Sep 16 '17 at 03:17
  • @ KristinaLopez You're exactly correct. I don't know what HotLicks is talking about. He seems to have misunderstood the question. It seems amazing to me that somebody who cannot understand a question should try to close it as "Off Topic" then throw in the gratuitous insult that I should look on an English Learners site. English is my first language. I know exactly what the phrases mean. The question is not about what the phrases mean. This is the kind of question I often see asked here.Several commenters clearly do understand the question and have suggested answers in the comments. – Flynn Sep 18 '17 at 17:21

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