need not go

Be careful with this. “Need not go” means it’s okay whether she goes or doesn’t go. “Need to not go” means it’s NOT okay if she goes.

It’s fine and not that uncommon for me (age 37, Australia). We say ‘you need not worry’ and similar uses of ‘need not.’

(Native speaker, California) to me, this sounds archaic and formal. It's the way a princess in a fantasy realm would speak. You could even contract it into "needn't go" to make it sound even more archaic and obscure.  Yes it's technically correct and anyone listening would understand you just fine. You just sound very fancy. ✨️

This sentence is fine. “Need [not]” is a bit odd relative to most of the other present-tense modals (can, will, shall, may) in that it lacks a past counterpart that would often be found in this kind of indirect speech: > “I **cannot** come,” he said. > He said he **could not** come. So, we just use “need” and pretend it works. In this way, it’s similar to “must.” :) > “I **need not** come,” he said. > He said he **needn’t** come.

Technically the sentence is fine. Though in some context may imply the man may be trying to prevent the woman from finding information the man is trying to hide.

In the US, this would seem old-fashioned, and might be seen as more direct than it seems: _Should_ not. "Need not" can be a more subtle way of implying that. For example, in New York during the 19th century, signs were sometimes posted about jobs, with the tagline "Irish need not apply." (They sometimes used a common slur instead of "Irish.") That definitely meant that Irish people shouldn't apply. There was a lot of strife between the Irish and Italian immigrant community at the time, and it was also common among some people to consider the Irish as being inherently lower-class. (Probably started by the same English high-society people who were in the habit of subjecting the Irish and other ethnic groups to horrendous abuse.)

Technically, yes. However it sounds extremely formal and I doubt you'd find this anywhere in everyday speech. A more natural way would be "He told Sarah that she doesn't need to go there."

Yes, but it’s a slightly more formal way of saying “…doesn’t need to…”. It’s not the usual way of saying that, but it’s not uncommon

" she doesn't need to go there " not sure tho