Tough Writing Questions

Disneyguy
Sun, 04 May 2008 18:31:48 +0000

Ummm… “Someone need not apply” is actually grammatically correct.

In that case, the word “need” was an auxiliary verb (such as “can” or “do” or “may”) instead of the main verb, and, because of this, need not agree with the subject (sorry, I couldn’t resist!).

Think of it this way:

“Someone can not apply” and “Someone may not apply” are both grammatically correct. “Need not apply” works the same way.