# How to execute Must and Should query that matches an individual Nested field?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-execute-must-and-should-query-that-matches-an-individual-nested-field/239648>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 2, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-execute-must-and-should-query-that-matches-an-individual-nested-field/239648 "2020-07-02T13:52:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-execute-must-and-should-query-that-matches-an-individual-nested-field/239648/2 "2020-07-02T14:10:56Z")

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This is an [old slide](https://www.slideshare.net/MarkHarwood/proposal-for-nested-document-support-in-lucene) but might help paint the picture.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/9/4/9437328b8d62d930fa5a2c360cc38ac62762609c.jpeg)

A single JSON document has `nested` elements unpacked into adjacent Lucene documents.  
The "nested" query essentially acts as a translation point. Whatever criteria you put underneath (including bool queries) matches an inner Lucene document but the nested clause translates any reported matches as a hit on the Lucene document that contains it. The "nested" clause simply establishes a new context for the criteria it contains.

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_[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-execute-must-and-should-query-that-matches-an-individual-nested-field/239648)._