He needs not go to school today.
Is the sentence grammatical?
Thanks.
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It’s the same as: ‘He doesn’t have/ need to go to school today’. Note that ‘mustn’t’ is not used in this sense.
Also, I would prefer: ‘He need not go to school today.’ When ‘need’ is used as an ordinary verb then the third person singular is followed by -s. E.g.: ‘All he needs is a little bit of rest and he’ll be alright in the morning’. In the original sentence ‘need’ should have the same present tense forms as modal auxiliary verbs. This means that the third person singular is not followed by -s. So, it should be ‘need’.
I’m sorry I said it was correct at first, but I read your sentence quite quickly and thought I saw ‘need’. So, no, it’s not grammatically correct. The sentence in bold type is obviously the correct one. What it all boils down to is the lack of necessity as felt by the speaker, and that he - whoever that may be - probably has a day off school.
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