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"We need these shipments made as soon as possible." > Is this sentence correct?

Someone who's American said it like that, so I asked someone who's Korean about this sentence, and he said it's not correct and it should be changed to "We need to make these shipments as soon as possible". Is he right?

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    We need it done is a valid pattern. You could say We need these items shipped as soon as possible.
    – TimR
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 11:50
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    Your Korean friend is not correct – either form is valid and grammatical.
    – J.R.
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 11:51

1 Answer 1

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The customer says what he wishes done.

The shipper says what he has to do.

Customer ~= a person making a demand

Shipper ~= a person responding to a demand

Normally the customer would say this to the shipper:

I need those items shipped ASAP.

or

I need you to ship those items ASAP.

The foreman of the shipping company could say to the employees:

We need to ship these items ASAP.

But it is not impossible for the foreman of the shipping company to say to the employees:

We need these items shipped ASAP.

though I don't think that is as likely as the infinitive version ("We need to ship...") when spoken by the shipper.

The shipping foreman might say:

The customer needs these items shipped ASAP.

or

I need these items shipped ASAP.

in which case he is then making a demand of the employees in the same way that the customer has made a demand of the shipper.

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