French language Q&A Forum

I think the explanation for avoir envie de vomir needs to be amended to say that this can be expressed using avoir besoin de as well as using devoir. Having studied the lesson, I assumed you could only use avoir envie de. 

Most of the lessons on this site help with grammatical understanding, however this is the first lesson I’m struggling to understand. I’ve found some comments useful after being overly frustrated with getting the quizzes wrong, but I feel this article needs an update for further clarity.

I *think* I understand when to use “avoir besoin de” or “devoir”, but how/where does “falloir” work? (Note: I asked a similar question in the lesson on “falloir”)

Regarding the question ?How could you say "You need a new bike." ??

I think "devoir" would be acceptable as I perceived the possibility the person used the bike as a necessary form of transportation and the bike was either to broken to repair or was used for work.  In that case they would really need to replace the bike making devoir acceptable.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into the questionÉ

How could you say "He needs a day off." ?

I answered:

Il a besoin d'un jour de congé.

*Il doit un jour de congé*

Google translates "tu dois du repos" as "you need some rest." But it sounds like Kwiziq only wants us to use devoir before an infinitive. However, the lesson only says "sometimes you can use devoir" without any explanation or examples. Despite the fact that multiple people have been complaining about this for years!

I think also the English translation might be tripping me up in certain instances. Like "you need to take a day off" in English uses the infinitive verb "to take" but in French it's "you need " which is a noun. It would be nice if the lesson explained that. 

I hate having to just memorize the quiz maker's answer without understanding why Kwiziq thinks it's correct.

I am having a difficult time deciding when devoir is appropriate and when it is not.  All the other applications, I am ok with.  But if devoir implies "must have" why is a purse a necessity? Why not just Avoir besoin?  And why is sleep NOT a necessity (or I may be getting this confused at this point). This is getting to be more of a guessing/memorization thing than an actual understanding thing.  I see from the previous posts that this has been discussed ad infinitum so it's not just me.  Any easy way to decide when to use devoir and when NOT to use it in this context?

Thanks

… isn’t it?

Avoir besoin de. Avoir envie de. Devoir. I try guessing by picking one or two or three depending on the activity and invariably get it wrong. I think your explanatory text needs more clarification, especially in the use of avoir envie de as an option for ‘need to’. Thank you for your time.

if ‘avoir envie de’ can be used as an alternative to ‘avoir besoin de’ for saying ‘needs to go to the bathroom’, why can’t it also be used for ‘needs to take a day off’? Isn’t it all down to context in both cases?

I got a quiz question from the "a besoin de" lesson:

Cette année, Michaël ________ perdre du poids.

I was using "doit" here, but the correct was "a besoin de"

I couldn't find a full explanation why the second one is correct but the first one not.

Does the meaning change in this case (I could imagine that doit would be closer linked to a real need, e.g from a medical perspective, while besoin would be more linked to his wish to lose weight, but no idea if that's the case).