necesite, necesitado, necesitaba

[hola]

necesite, necesitado, necesitaba. can anyone be used at any time? is there a difference between the 3? can someone provide an example sentence of how each is used? thank you

[poli]

[quote=hola;12766]necesite, necesitado, necesitaba. can anyone be used at any time? is there a difference between the 3? can someone provide an example sentence of how each is used? thank you[/quote]
necesitado is the past participle. example: I have needed=He necesitado
Necesite is present subjunctive third person. example: I hope that some
day you may need somebody=Ojalá que un día le necesite a alguien.
Necesitaba is the imperfect past tense of to need. example: In order
to survive, he needed water. =Para sobrevirir, él necesitaba agua.

[Elaina]

The only thing I would add is ....

Estoy necesitado - I am in need.


Elaina

[Rusty]

Since all three words were lumped together, I assume your dictionary gave all three the same meaning - needed. While it is true that all three can have the same meaning, I hope your dictionary also pointed out that each is a different conjugation (form) of the infinitive verb 'to need' (necesitar) and, therefore, serve three different functions. They cannot be interchanged.

As Poli stated, needed is the translation for necesitado. He correctly identified this form of the verb as the past participle. He also mentioned that necesitaba means needed, and correctly identified it as the imperfect tense. This is also called the past, or preterite imperfect tense. There is another past tense he didn't mention, and I believe the middle word falls into this category (since it would be translated as needed, as well). This third tense is called the preterite perfect tense. Your middle word would be spelled necesité (notice the accent in its final syllable) in this tense.

There are other conjugated forms of the same verb. All can be translated as needed, as long as you choose one of the past tenses mentioned, or any of the compound forms that use the past participle. Besides selecting from the correct past tense, or compound tense, you also need to consider choosing the correct person (like I, you, she, he, it, we, they).

For more help with verb conjugation, have a look at the fully-conjugated verb. You can see a chart here, here, or here. Next, find an adequate tutorial on how to conjugate Spanish verbs, using the persons and tenses you find in these charts.

You'll soon discover that there are over 100 ways to say needed, not just the three you listed in your post. Don't let that overwhelm you. Take verb conjugation ONE STEP AT A TIME.

Necesitar is an -AR verb, named for the last two letters of its infinitive form. An -AR verb is also known as a Type I verb. Type II verbs have infinitives that end in -ER. Type III verbs have infinitives that end in -IR.
Hablar, comer, and vivir are good examples of each verb type. These happen to also be normal, or regular verbs, so that makes them even better to start with.

Let us know if we can be of further help.

[hola]

oh ok thanks so much Rusty i really appreciate it thank you and thank you to everyone else

[Marsopa]

Or estoy necesitado--I am needy.