Should I use "is needed" or "is in need"? [closed]

Solution 1:

The two mean different things. "Mary is needed" means that there is something or someone that needs Mary. "Mary is in need" means that Mary needs something or someone.

For example:

  • "This model is needed to correctly calculate the correlation". If we don't have the model, we can't calculate the correlation.
  • "This model is in need of a better statistical module to correctly predict the results" If the model doesn't have a better statistical module it will predict wrong results.