[matthewshannon9]

The difference between нужно and надо is very simple actually. Нужно is equal to "to need" and надо is equal to "must." Thus you must use надо with a verb and you can not use it with a noun. Нужно is used with a verb and if you need something you would decline нужно with the noun, нужен, нужна, нужны, for example. Hope that helps. You can not say, "мне надо пакет" at the store for example despite all Tajiks/Uzbeks using it this way. Correct is "мне нужен пакет." Feel free to ask me grammatical questions in Russian via pm. I am not a native speaker but seem to be able to explain better than Russians in some cases.