Shall

[konungursvia]

I use it all the time in academic research, in the first person, both singular and plural.

[Williamyh]

What's the truth about 'shall' nowadays?

In Spoken English, we always use the short form of "Will" or "Shall", so let's say "we will/shall go to school", we just say "We'll go to school." As I heard from English teacher, shall is not a popular english in the world, because the short form of "shall not" is "shan't" which is not popular word anymore.....we just use "won't" to intead of it, so most of the time, we should use "will"...not "shall"...

WYH

[syku]

If you have just conquered a kingdom, you would say, "This kingdom shall fall." Neither "should" nor "will" delivers the same strength or meaning.

[Bennevis]

Well, the way they teach kids in Russian schools, "shall" is used with the pronouns "I" and "we". When I came back to Russia in 2009 after having lived in the US for 10 straight years, I started to wince at this usage. So my question is: ""If you tell the Queen or Margaret Thatcher 'I shall drink a toast to the well-being of this country' instead of saying 'I will ...', will either of them wince at me for my choice of the word? If at least one of them okays it, I won't care what the rest of the planet's inhabitants think, although I must admit I use "will" all the time. I use "shall" when translating agreements/contracts from Russian into English.

[Esredux]

...So my question is: ""If you tell the Queen or Margaret Thatcher 'I shall drink a toast to the well-being of this country' instead of saying 'I will ...', will either of them wince at me for my choice of the word?..

Seek and ye shall find ;)

[SlickVic9000]

Is that why the standard of English is very very high in India and Australia compared to the 'natives'. Also, my friends who have settled abroad and even those 'natives' I have come across, are mostly waiters in restaurant, taxi-drivers, wage workers etc., I mean to say you cannot expect a high standard English from such people. Whereas in India all those who know English have Medical Degrees(Doctors), Engineers, Lawyers, IT professionals, MBAs, Bank Employees, Insurance agents and officers etc. And they have a very conducive atmosphere to speak a real good standard English. That is why when you use "shall" in India, there are no illiterate or semi-literate to laugh upon the usage of such words. It is not a pompous usage in India. Perhaps other countries including "natives" have got to improve their standard of English. It is only through economic success that you can improve the standard of living, thinking, education and speech.

There are formal and informal modes of speech in English (and in many other languages I'm sure). There is a time and place for both. To speak formally in an informal situation could be perceived as an attempt to either be silly or overbearing. Likewise, if you try to speak informally in a formal environment, you will (shall?) come across as facetious.

In the US, "shall" has fallen out of use in common speech as far as I can tell and is now mostly relegated to legal documents and academic papers.

(PS --- I realize the quoted comment is over 4 years old, but I saw no response to it in the thread, so I though I might put in my two cents.)

[Tdol]

In the US, "shall" has fallen out of use in common speech as far as I can tell and is now mostly relegated to legal documents and academic papers.

I went to Corregidor island and they have a statue of General MacArthur with the quote I shall return- I suppose that this was rhetorical language but it still sounded odd to hear it used by an American speaker.

[luk3]

Hi, I work for a company in Asia, I see in official letters, they oftel use shall, i.e: "please note that the meeting shall be ...", however, I cannot distinguish between shall and will :(

[Tdol]

In cases like that, there's no real difference in meaning. Shall sounds a bit more formal because it is used in legal documents.

[Niklas]

Very interesting thread, this is. I'm a non native speaker, have to add that first, but I'm like brit influenced to an extent, in that i spent a year in a boarding school in England. So my perspective on language issues is rather Brit than american oriented. I do use the word "shall" and mainly so in questions, same as the TS implied., so its not solely but predominantly used in questions, that's what I think at least. I found it interesting to read some people and apparently even natives, responded saying they hadn't used the word in years or even decades.