"I need meat."
Translation:Мне нужно мясо.
8 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
why is "мне надо мясо" wrong? I was just told надо and нужно mean the same except the latter is more colloquial
Sorry — they mean the same thing when they're used predicatively (it's neccessary).
However, when used as an adjective, you only use нужен (with masculine nouns) / нужна (feminine) / нужно (neutral).
In this sentence, it's used as an adjective: it's not «it's neccessary a meat for me», it's «a meat is neccessary for me».
Sorry for confusing you! While «нужно» and «надо» are interchangeable when they mean «it's neccessary» (basically, when they're used with infinitives), they are not interchangeable when used as adjectives.
oooh ok, because нужно and надо are adverbs, that's why they are interchangeable when they're with infinitives, but when the necessity goes along with a noun it should be the adjective form of нужно, which I saw is нужный. If it is нужный why is it used just with the endings -ен,-на,-но?
Ну́жен/нужна́/ну́жно are short forms of ну́жный/ну́жная/ну́жное.
In the modern Russian, short forms are largerly obsolete. However, «ну́жен/нужна́/ну́жно» is one of the cases when the short form is used almost always.
A few more info on short adjectives.
In modern Russian, short forms can only used in the sentences like «X is <short form here>», for example:
- Э́тот дом бе́лый. = Э́тот до́м бел. 'This house is white.'
- Э́тот сок вку́сный. = Э́тот сок вку́сен. 'This juice is tasty.'
- Э́та ко́шка бе́лая. = Э́та ко́шка бела́. 'This house is white.'
- Э́то я́блоко вку́сное. = Э́то я́блоко вку́сно. 'This apple is tasty.'
For most adjectives, long forms usually sound much more natural. Nobody would say «э́тот дом бе́л», except probably in poetry or very formal texts.
In other constructions, short forms are even more rare. You can find them in a few rare expressions, like «красна́ де́вица» 'fair maiden' in fairy tales (where «кра́сный» 'red' has the old meaning, 'beautiful'), but most short adjectives cannot be used this way (you can’t use *бел дом, it just sounds wrong).
Regarding short-form adjectives, don‘t forget about красно солнышко and ясен месяц. ;)
Посреди поля чистого / На восходе ясна месяца / На заставу богатырскую / Собирались на походный совет / Славнорусские богатыри. (из былины «Ильины три поездочки»)
And regarding the use of надо, I am pretty sure I have heard by надо being used instead of нужен, нужно and нужна (as an adjective) by native Russian speakers (my grandmother and mother, on a visit to Tallinn). Is this usage regional or just colloquial?
