Shall

[Tdol]

What's the truth about 'shall' nowadays?

[riverkid]

As one poster said, TDol frames great polls. They provide a background to some great discussions and though I'm certainly not trying to inhibit such things, there is a great book out that points us to the truth about how virtually every structure word/phrase is used in English.

It's entitled,

The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English by D. Biber et al.

and a link to Amazon,

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/...+Grammar+Biber

[dzmitry]

I've pushed the wrong button. I'm sorry

[BobK]

Let me disabuse you of the belief that shall is used mainly in questions nowadays. Or in other words, I shall hereby.disabuse you of the belief that shall is used mainly in questions nowadays.

b

[MikeNewYork]

Let me disabuse you of the belief that shall is used mainly in questions nowadays. Or in other words, I shall hereby.disabuse you of the belief that shall is used mainly in questions nowadays.

b

Shall we dance?
Let's go, shall we?
Shall I whip us up some lunch?

[Tdol]

No, you shall not!

[MikeNewYork]

No, you shall not!

Shalln't I?

[retro]

Isn't "should" more commonly used in AmE instead?

[Tdol]

It's used less than in BrE.

[Daizee]

Yeah, I'm a native speaker and never really use shall, it's often considered to be posh and used by the pompous.