Do you ever use this English word?

[fh2000]

While everyone is holding the breadth watching S&P 500 making new highs, I have a question regarding to this word I hear so often from our Offshore developer:

needful

as in, "Please do the needful".

I am not a native speaker of English. I have never heard anyone is US using this word, though I have only lived in US for 30 years.

 

[MRG]

Other online resources give similar descriptions.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_needful

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[prudent_one]

Lifelong US resident and have only heard that expression from colleagues in India or those from India.

 

[mpeirce]

Nope. I've never personally used or heard it AFAICR.

Wikipedia says it's mainly used in India.

Do the needful - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EDIT: guess I'm slower than some at writing posts...

 

[JoeWras]

It's a new world. Many of my colleagues are from India. Most of them learned a while ago not to use that expression because it perplexes many US workers.

Yet we still end up swapping colloquialisms and speech patterns, and that's OK! I noticed a lot of them are starting to use "you guys". We joke around a lot with the word "football", just to poke each other. Meanwhile, I find myself using the word "hence" more than I ever did.

I find that Indian English rubs off on me easier than British English.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

Lifelong US resident and have only heard that expression from colleagues in India or those from India.

+1

I was managing local and offshore teams, and my local devs were getting VERY annoyed at this phrase, because it sounded to them like the offshore devs were "telling them what to do".

After looking it up, we learned that in India it is considered a respectful way of asking someone to proceed.

 

[imoldernu]

Steven King book and movie "Needful Things"

 

[Amethyst]

At least they aren't asking you to do the nasty!

 

[chilkoot]

I'm familiar with the word though I seldom see it used. "Needy" is more common.
But the example given makes it sound like it's being used as a synonym for "necessary". Is that the way it's used in Indian English?

 

[Chuckanut]

Language is one of those interesting things we take for granted but can cause so much confusion.

The first time I was in the US South, I bought some gas. This was the old days when they ran the card through an imprint device!! The young gal asked me for my 'taaahhhg numbah' in a very thick southern accent. I was totally confused. What tag was she talking about? The one on my shirt? Or was this an assertive Southern girl's way of flirting and asking for my phone number? Finally, it hit me. She wanted the car's license number. :-(

A while back I heard that in Canada when something at a meeting is 'tabled' that means it's brought to the fore front for discussion. The exact opposite of what 'tabled' means in the USA. Right or wrong?

 

[kcowan]

A while back I heard that in Canada when something at a meeting is 'tabled' that means it's brought to the fore front for discussion. The exact opposite of what 'tabled' means in the USA. Right or wrong?

Yes it can mean brought forward. However it can also be left on the table for future discussion same as in the US.

 

[tmm99]

...have only heard that expression from colleagues in India or those from India.

Same here. And propone and updation.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

i use it occasionally.

 

[Finder]

Have only heard that from callers from India.
... and from those, only a few. Tends to be the ones that have had less interaction with the US.

 

[FUEGO]

Dunno. Down here in the South we just say "Git er done!"

 

[prudent_one]

The first time I was in the US South, I bought some gas. This was the old days when they ran the card through an imprint device!! The young gal asked me for my 'taaahhhg numbah' in a very thick southern accent. I was totally confused.

On one of my first trips to the south, I was listening to the radio and they said Cow Patty had come in third in some race. I wondered why they announced which horse came third for just one race when there were probably a bunch of races at the track that day.

When I got to my friend's house, I asked about that weird news report. He clarified it for me. Kyle Petty came in third. And we were near his hometown, which is why they always report where he finished. I laughed until I cried.

 

[Nemo2]

"Do the needful".

A Saudi in Riyadh said it to a friend of mine....he found it amusing enough to relate it to me.

 

[bssc]

At first, it was mostly the offshore teams but I noticed, before I retired, that many of the onshore people were using it too.

 

[Meadbh]

Has anyone heard the expressions "this day morning" and "today morning" to convey "this morning"? I heard this a lot from Middle Eastern and Indian colleagues. I thought it was charming.

 

[Nemo2]

I was in a store in Durban and a South African couple said to the clerk "We'll be back right now"........I thought "No, you're here right now".......turns out they meant "We'll be back shortly".

 

[FUEGO]

Has anyone heard the expressions "this day morning" and "today morning" to convey "this morning"? I heard this a lot from Middle Eastern and Indian colleagues. I thought it was charming.

My kids would say stuff like that when they were little. Like "last day" instead of yesterday. I guess they figure "last day" follows the same rules of construction as "last night".

For your colleagues, the today morning phrase might be a literal translation from their other language(s) that isn't English.

 

[pb4uski]

I have never heard the word "needful", either in the US nor in my work/travels in the UK, Canada or Australia.

 

[Redbugdave]

I am needful that I do miss the sounds of Calcutta each day morning...

Hey, I likes it!

 

[robnplunder]

Here's a word I never used/seen before working for the current megacorp - bifurcate. It showed up in a slide and I had to do a quick dictionary check. I don't think the use of "bifurcate" was very needful in the context.

 

[ziggy29]

I think it's just an English expression that is commonly used in India. I too used to work with many developers and others from India and this was a phrase I heard often from them, and never anywhere else. Since that career ended over 16 months ago, I've never heard that phrase again until now...