"I need to buy pencils."
Translation:Мне нужно купить карандаши.
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Is «надо» exactly the same meaning as «нужно»? If that's not the case, could you tell me the difference?
«Надо» is a bit more colloquial. Also, «надо» can only be used with infinitives, while «ну́жно» can be used with nouns (then it changes it form according to the gender of the noun: ну́жен, нужна́, ну́жно)
I.e. you can replace them when you have an verb (in its inifinitive form):
- Мне на́до/ну́жно купи́ть карандаши́. = I need to buy pencils. (To me, it's neccessary to buy pencils.)
But you can’t replace them when you have a noun:
- Мне ну́жен каранда́ш. 'I need a pencils.' (Can't use на́до here.)
- Мне нужна́ ру́чка. 'I need a pen' (To me, a pen is neccessary.)
- Мне ну́жно молоко́. 'I need milk.' (To me, milk is neccessary.)¹
- Мне нужны́ карандаши́. 'I need pencils.' (To me, pencils are neccessary.)
¹ Most people around me seem to pronounce «ну́жно» with verbs and «нужно́» with neuter nouns, but the dictionary says it's a mistake.
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I did not know нужно was affected by gender. I kept getting it wrong so the next time I would switch the vowel and it was wrong again.
Yes, карандаши́ is the plural form. Singular is каранда́ш.
In this sentence, we have a verb «купи́ть» 'buy', therefore we use «ну́жно» or «на́до». The form of «ну́жно» is agreed with the verb, not with «карандаши́».
If you didn't have the verb, then you'd use «нужны»: «Мне нужны карандаши» 'I need pencils.'
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"Мне надо купить карандаши". and "Мне нужно купить карандаши". both mean "I need to buy pencils.". Why is it considered as a mistake in one a the cases?!?
Everyone! Great questions, great answers! Thank you, I've been schooled!
Can I use Покупить?
Thou canst, if thou wishest to sound really old-fashioned. But Duolingo accepts this not.
What is the difference?
- Покупать is the imperfective verb ('to be buying').
- (Its perfective pair покупить is not used in modern Russian, althouth it was possible in the past.)
- Купить is the perfective verb ('to buy').
- (You can't form an imperfective pair for it using the -а- suffix, because купать is already a different verb meaning 'to bathe someone, to wash'.)
Yeah I get the connections, just somehow remembered this form from another exercise...? But according to what you say, it was probably another word with this prefix. Thank you for the reply!
Probably it was покупать.
You can't say «Мне нужно покупать карандаши» because it would emphasise the process: you need to be in process of bying pencils during some period of time. This might work in some cases (e.g. when you're buying pencils repeatedly), but in most cases this would sound strange.
my dictionary gives купить as the (perf) for to buy. If perf means perfective shouldn't we be introduce to that concept first?
No, it doesn't. Both perfective and imperfective verbs can be used after "надо", depending on what you want to say.