Me necesitan hacer una revisión de ojos. This sounds weird

Question

I need to have my eyes tested.  The correct answer is "Me necesitan hacer una revisión de ojos."  But for some reason that just sounds odd to me.  I could understand "Me revisáron los ojos" as meaning "I got my eyes checked" -- something that got done to me by some un-named third party.  But it just sounds weird to say "me necesitan" something.  I guess because the other examples deal with having something done to me, and this example relates to the third party have a state of mind or need.  Is this format with necesitar common?

Answer

Hola RebekahYes, that's common and correct. We are adding a modal verb to the more straight: Me revisaron los ojos or Me hicieron una revisión de ojos.You can say:Me necesitaban hacer una revisión de ojosNecesitaban hacerme una revisión de ojosMe tuvieron que hacer una revisión de ojosTuvieron que hacerme una revisión de ojosTe deberían hacer una revisión de ojosDeberían hacerte una revisión de ojosetcSaludosInma

Answer

It is true, though - [as Rebekah implies] - that the sentence cannot easily be analysed in terms of the normal "Subject > Verb > Object" pattern. "Ojos" are presumably the subject of "necesitan"? - but that does seem awkward when they are also the object of the preposition "de". However, flexibility of this sort certainly contributes to the richness and beauty of language. I will try and think of a comparable example in English; if we look through Shakespeare's plays we might well find something !