What is difference between "need to" and "have to"?

What is difference between “need to” and “have to”?

I’m no teacher but as far as I’m concerned they mean the same thing. Maybe some English teacher will tell you there is some subtle difference. To me it seems like the word “'müssen” in German.

On this webside the differences are described.

-From English online help:

The entry for today is a very subtle one: it’s the difference between “have to” and “need to”. There is a slight difference in nuance between them. We say “have to” when we want to talk about obligations – things we have no choice about doing. However, we say “need to” when we want to talk about things that are necessary to do in order to achieve a certain goal. For example:

I have to be at work by 9:00 a.m. every morning.

I have to help my friend move tomorrow, so I can’t have lunch with you.

You have to turn off the lights if you’re the last person to leave the office.

I want to go to Vietnam for my vacation, so I need to get a visa.

If you want to get a promotion, you need to work very hard.

If your daughter wants to be a model, she needs to lose some weight.

-I guess I don’t speak proper English and neither does almost everyone I know as to me both are interchangeable. Either one sounds fine to my Canadian ears. IMO their getting a little too technical, but like I said I’m no teacher. The examples they give are very “textbuchish” to me.

It is not an improper way to use your own language, it is a matter of which style is being used.
For instance in polish are recognized six styles;
scientific (naukowy)
popular science (popularnonaukowy)
journalistic (publicystyczny)
colloquial (potoczny)
official (urzędowy)
artistic (artystyczny)

I think the difference between your style ‘nateg’ and this one from the website is like divergence between colloquial and official, so there is no reason to be worry about:)

Edward.

Stimmt.