[Grammar] The difference between shall and will

[anndoneli]

When do you use shall and will?

 

[SirGod]

* Not a teacher

It is a vast subject, but Wikipedia has an excellent article on this topic, you can check it out here:

Shall and will - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then, if you have a specific question, just ask.

 

[Barb_D]

You can also search the forums for "shall * will." You'll find many threads. You'll also learn that for simple declarative sentences, "shall" is rarely used these days.

 

[TheParser]

When do you use shall and will?

NOT A TEACHER


(1) Mr. Henry Fowler was an English gentleman who wrote books on "good"

English. He said that nobody could use "shall" properly unless s/he was

born into an upper-class British family!

(2) Here in the United States, it is now used by ordinary people like me mostly

in questions:

Shall we dance?

It's very cold. Shall I turn on the heater?

(3) It's occasionally used in other situations:

(a) Let's go, shall we? (You cannot say "will we?")

(b) Violations shall be punished by fines or imprisonment. (official government statements)

(4) Here is what one well-educated British journalist (who was very prominent before World War II) once said: "I think I should die if I ceased writing." Probably most people (at least here in the States) would say would.

Sources:

The Grammar Book by Mesdames Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman.

Modern American Usage by Wilson Follett.