Shall we ? / Will we ?

[englishhobby]

As far as I know in modern English language 'shall' is not used with I and we for simple future actions. Is it so? If yes, then the second sentence must be unnatural?

1) Will we inform them about the meeting?
2) Shall we inform them about the meeting?

 

[BobK]

Well many people, in British Eng at least, use 2. In Ireland, 1 is preferred - I think.

In regular BE, 'Will' is used for questions that aren't suggestions: 'Will humans still be the dominant life-form on Earth in 2100?' (But 'Shall we go to the party?')

b

 

[bhaisahab]

Yes, Bob, 1 is widely used in Ireland.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I speak BrE and I use shall when it is what I want to say. So, without any further context your 2) sounds the most natural to me.

I once had a discussion about this with an American acquaintance and he told me that if he were to use "shall" he would expect to be ridiculed as it was considered unmanly. Very strange.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I wouldn't call it unmanly. In AmE, "shall" is mostly used for suggestions in a question form. Shall we go? Shall we dance? Shall we sit down for dinner?