It seems that the word “shall” has all but dropped out of American English, save for use by legal documents and some elitists. However, given that the word is still used by (presumably) the rest of the world’s English-speaking population (or those that use Queen’s English, anyway), and given that it seems to be intergangeable with the word “will,” what are the specific rules for its use?
I can only think of one use for the word “shall” in place of “will,” and that is in the case of a solemn declaration:
I shall return! You shall take this ring to The Cracks of Doom in the Fiery Mountain in Mordor and destroy it for good!
A person who is in the process of drowning accidentally:
“I shall drown! No one will help me!”
A person who is trying to commit suicide by drowning:
“I will drown! No one shall help me!”
In other words, when you are distinguishing between shall and will,shall indicates what is definitely going to happen, whereas will indicates a desire as to what may happen.
I shall We shall
you will You (all) will
(s)he/it will They will
And all that is just the simple future. Nothing special. However if you flip them (He shall, or I will) then it is volitional and determinative and it basically means “By God this is going to happen!” Of course most of the distinction has drop out of American English and is really only used in legalese. Should/would worked the same way and that’s where we get our should=ought thing.
Shall is alive and well in technical documents, which are not quite the same as legal documents.
As said above, “shall” denotes a requirement, while “will” denotes volition. “The Contractor shall use pressure treated lumber.” But the Contractor will meet the specifications or get sued.
Maybe we borrowed this distinction from the lawyers, but it is significant.
It’s the opposite, Ad Noctum. Will has been rather bastardized lately, and often takes the place of shall, the actual future tense of the verb to be.
So in the most technical sense, shall is used for futurity and will for volition, but that dichotomy is blurred. Nowadays will seems to have completely pushed out shall, so it’s pretty hard to say that it is outright wrong.
I still prefer to use when I write, but I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud in conversation.
I just read an article where Pete Seeger he started the singing the song “We Will Overcome” as “We Shall Overcome” because it was “easier to get your mouth around ‘shall’”
I doubt he thinks there is much difference between the words.