“Shall” Versus “Will”
How British is it to use “shall”?
This episode concerns your future: whether you should use shall or will.
Bonnie Trenga (who wrote this week’s show) writes that there are two sets of rules: the stickler version and the people’s version. There is also the British version and the American version.
Shall in Britain
The stickler version and British version line up pretty well with each other: tradition holds that you use shall to indicate the future if you are using first person (I or we) and will if you are using second or third person (you, he, she, or they).
So, in England, it would be perfectly normal to say, “I shall have tea with my grandmother tomorrow.” In America, that would sound odd. We Americans would be more likely to have coffee and to say, “I will take my grandmother out for a latte tomorrow.”
Shall With Determination
The British traditionally use shall to express determination or intention on the part of the speaker or someone other than the subject of the verb. Fowler’s offers an example from British author Evelyn Waugh: “One day you shall know my full story.” This does seem to offer a different connotation than “One day you will know my full story.” It makes the author sound more determined. However, using shall in this way isn’t common in America.
Shall in America
In America, will has replaced shall in all but a few cases. If you use shall in the British way during normal conversation, you might end up sounding pretentious or haughty.
The most common two places you’ll see shall in America are in legal documents and in lofty prose.
The Legal Shall
Shall in a legal sense often indicates explicit obligation. If you’ve signed a lease lately, you’ve probably encountered a sentence like this: “This lease shall commence on January 1.” In general usage, though, you use must or should to express obligation: “You must pay your rent on time.” However, some sources say that even American lawyers may be moving away from shall because of its alleged ambiguity.
The Lofty Shall
Even if lawyers give up shall, great orators and authors will probably still use it to deliver uplifting prose. You’ll encounter shall in the Bible, and you’ve probably heard it in famous songs or speeches. “We shall overcome,” Martin Luther King, Jr. famously declared, and you probably sang a version of “This Land is Your Land” in school, which includes the lyrics “This land was made for you and me.” It’s poetic and elevates the speaker’s sentiment.
Will as a Determination
In all other situations, you can use will as a marker of determination or intention, regardless of the subject. “I will go to the store” means I am determined to go to the store. This sentence works for the first person, but it also works for the second and third person: “You will go to the store,” and “She will go to the store.”
Summary
In summary, while British English maintains a distinction between shall and will based on the subject of the sentence, American English has largely simplified this rule. Will has become the go-to future tense marker in most contexts. That said, shall retains its place in formal and legal language and can lend a poetic quality to speech and writing.