Then All Efforts Here Will Have Been for Naught Again

Discussion of modal verbs

Shall and will are two of the English modal verbs. They have various uses, including the expression of propositions almost the futurity, in what is ordinarily referred to as the future tense of English.

Historically, prescriptive grammar stated that, when expressing pure futurity (without any additional pregnant such as desire or command), shall was to be used when the subject was in the first person, and will in other cases (eastward.g., "On Sunday, we shall go to church, and the preacher will read the Bible.") This rule is no longer commonly adhered to past whatsoever group of English speakers, and will has essentially replaced shall in nearly all contexts.

Shall is, however, still widely used in bureaucratic documents, especially documents written by lawyers. Attributable to heavy misuse, its meaning tin can be ambiguous and the U.s. government'southward Manifestly Language group advises writers not to use the word at all.^[1] Other legal drafting experts, including Plain Linguistic communication advocates, argue that while shall can be cryptic in statutes (which most of the cited litigation on the word'southward interpretation involves), courtroom rules, and consumer contracts, that reasoning does not apply to the language of business contracts.^[two] These experts recommend using shall only simply to impose an obligation on a contractual party that is the field of study of the sentence, i.eastward., to convey the meaning "hereby has a duty to."^{[2] [iii] [4] [v] [six] [seven]}

Etymology [edit]

The verb shall derives from Quondam English language sceal. Its cognates in other Germanic languages include Old Norse skal, German soll, and Dutch zal; these all represent *skol-, the o-grade of Indo-European *skel-. All of these verbs function as auxiliaries, representing either simple futurity, or necessity or obligation.

The verb will derives from Old English willan, pregnant to want or wish. Cognates include Quondam Norse vilja, German wollen (ich/er/sie volition, meaning I/he/she want/s to), Dutch willen, Gothic wiljan. It also has relatives in not-Germanic languages, such every bit Latin velle ("wish for") and voluptas ("pleasance"), and Smooth woleć ("prefer"). All of these forms derive from the e-form or o-course of Indo-European *wel-, meaning to wish for or desire. Within English, the modal verb will is as well related to the substantive will and the regular lexical verb will (equally in "She willed him on").

Early Germanic did not inherit any Proto-Indo-European forms to express the future tense, then the Germanic languages have innovated by using auxiliary verbs to express the future (this is evidenced in Gothic and in the earliest recorded Germanic expressions). In English, shall and will are the auxiliaries that came to be used for this purpose. (Another i used as such in Old English was mun, which is related to Scots maun, Modern English must and Dutch moet)

Derived forms and pronunciation [edit]

Both shall and will come up from verbs that had the preterite-present conjugation in Old English (and generally in Germanic), pregnant that they were conjugated using the strong preterite form (i.east. the usual by tense class) as the present tense. Because of this, like the other modal verbs, they do non take the usual -due south in Mod English'southward third-person singular nowadays; we say she shall and he volition – non *she shalls, and not *he wills (except in the sense of "to volition" being a synonym of "to want" or "to write into a will"). Archaically, there were however the variants shalt and wilt, which were used with one thousand.

Both verbs also have their own preterite (by) forms, namely should and would, which derive from the actual preterites of the One-time English verbs (fabricated using the dental suffix that forms the preterites of weak verbs). These forms accept adult a range of meanings, frequently independent of those of shall and will (as described in the section on should and would below). Aside from this, though, shall and will (like the other modals) are defective verbs – they do non have other grammatical forms such as infinitives, imperatives or participles. (For instance, I desire to volition consume something or He'due south shalling get to sleep do not be.)

Both shall and will may be contracted to -'ll, most unremarkably in affirmative statements where they follow a subject pronoun. Their negations, shall non and volition not, also have contracted forms: shan't and won't (although shan't is rarely used in Northward America, and is becoming rarer elsewhere too). See English auxiliaries and contractions.

The pronunciation of will is , and that of won't is . However shall has distinct weak and strong pronunciations: when unstressed, and when stressed. Shan't is pronounced in England, New Zealand, South Africa etc.; in N America (if used) it is pronounced , and both forms are acceptable in Australia (due to the unique grade of the trap–bath split).

Specific uses of shall or will [edit]

The modal verbs shall and will have been used in the past, and keep to be used, in a variety of meanings.^[8] Although when used purely as future markers they are largely interchangeable (every bit volition be discussed in the following sections), each of the 2 verbs likewise has certain specific uses in which information technology cannot be replaced by the other without change of significant.

The most common specific use of shall in everyday English is in questions that serve equally offers or suggestions: "Shall I ...?" or "Shall nosotros ...?" These are discussed under § Questions below.

In statements, shall has the specific employ of expressing an club or instruction, ordinarily in elevated or formal register. This utilise tin alloy with the usage of shall to express futurity, and is therefore discussed in detail below under § Colored uses.

Will (but non shall) is used to express habitual action, ofttimes (only not exclusively) action that the speaker finds abrasive:

• He will bite his nails, whatsoever I say.
• He will frequently stand on his head.

Similarly, will is used to limited something that tin can be expected to happen in a general case, or something that is highly probable at the present time:

• A coat will last two years when properly cared for.
• That will exist Mo at the door.

The other main specific implication of will is to express willingness, desire or intention. This blends with its usage in expressing time to come, and is discussed under § Colored uses. For its use in questions about the future, meet § Questions.

Uses of shall and will in expressing time to come [edit]

Both shall and will can exist used to marking a circumstance as occurring in hereafter time; this construction is oft referred to as the future tense of English language. For example:

• Volition they exist here tomorrow?
• I shall grow one-time some day.
• Shall we become for dinner?

When volition or shall directly governs the infinitive of the main verb, equally in the to a higher place examples, the construction is called the simple future. Future marking can likewise be combined with aspectual mark to produce constructions known as future progressive ("He will be working"), time to come perfect ("He will have worked") and future perfect progressive ("He volition have been working"). English language also has other ways of referring to future circumstances, including the going to structure, and in many cases the ordinary present tense – details of these can be found in the article on the going-to hereafter.

The verbs will and shall, when used every bit hereafter markers, are largely interchangeable with regard to literal significant. By and large, however, will is far more than common than shall. Use of shall is unremarkably a marked usage, typically indicating formality and/or seriousness and (if not used with a first person subject) expressing a colored pregnant every bit described below. In most dialects of English, the utilise of shall every bit a hereafter marker is viewed equally archaic.^[9]

Will is ambiguous in first-person statements, and shall is ambiguous in second- and 3rd-person statements. A rule of prescriptive grammar was created to remove these ambiguities, simply it requires that the hearer or reader understand the dominion followed past the speaker or writer, which is ordinarily not the case. According to this rule, when expressing hereafter and nothing more, the auxiliary shall is to be used with outset person subjects (I and we), and will is to be used in other instances. Using will with the starting time person or shall with the 2d or tertiary person is asserted to point some additional significant in addition to plainly time to come. In practice, however, this dominion is non observed – the two auxiliaries are used interchangeably, with will existence far more common than shall. This is discussed in more detail in the post-obit sections.

Prescriptivist stardom [edit]

According to Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage,^[10] the distinction between shall and will as time to come markers arose from the practice of Latin teaching in English schools in the 14th century. It was customary to utilise will to translate the Latin velle (meaning to wish, want or intend); this left shall (which had no other equivalent in Latin) to translate the Latin time to come tense. This practice kept shall live in the role of future marking; information technology is used consistently equally such in the Middle English Wycliffe's Bible. Nevertheless, in the mutual language information technology was will that was condign predominant in that office. Chaucer normally uses will to indicate the future, regardless of grammatical person.

An influential proponent of the prescriptive dominion that shall is to be used as the usual future marker in the first person was John Wallis. In Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae (1653) he wrote: "The rule is [...] to express a future event without emotional overtones, one should say I shall, nosotros shall, but y'all/he/she/they volition; conversely, for accent, willfulness, or insistence, ane should say I/we will, simply you/he/she/they shall".

Henry Watson Fowler wrote in his book The Male monarch's English, regarding the rules for using shall vs. will, the comment "the idiomatic utilize, while it comes by nature to southern Englishmen ... is then complicated that those who are non to the manner born can hardly learn it". The Pocket Fowler'south Modern English language Usage, OUP, 2002, says of the rule for the use of shall and will: "it is unlikely that this rule has ever had whatsoever consistent footing of potency in actual usage, and many examples of [British] English in print condone information technology".

Nonetheless, even amid speakers (the majority) who practise non follow the dominion about using shall as the unmarked grade in the starting time person, there is still a trend to use shall and will to limited unlike shades of meaning (reflecting aspects of their original Old English senses). Thus shall is used with the meaning of obligation, and will with the pregnant of desire or intention.

An illustration of the supposed contrast between shall and will (when the prescriptive rule is adhered to) appeared in the 19th century,^[11] and has been repeated in the 20th century^[12] and in the 21st:^[13]

• I shall drown; no i will save me! (expresses the expectation of drowning, simple expression of future occurrence)
• I volition drown; no one shall save me! (expresses suicidal intent: first-person will for desire, third-person shall for "command")

An example of this stardom in writing occurs in Henry James'southward 1893 short story The Middle Years:

"Don't y'all know?—I want to what they telephone call 'alive.'"

The young human, for good-past, had taken his hand, which closed with a certain force. They looked at each other hard a moment. "Y'all will live," said Dr. Hugh.

"Don't be superficial. It'due south too serious!"

"Yous shall live!" Dencombe's visitor declared, turning pale.

"Ah, that's better!" And every bit he retired the invalid, with a troubled laugh, sank gratefully dorsum.^[14]

A more than popular illustration of the apply of "shall" with the 2d person to express determination occurs in the oft-quoted words the fairy godmother traditionally says to Cinderella in British versions of the well-known fairy tale: "Y'all shall go to the ball, Cinderella!"

Another pop analogy is in the dramatic scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Band when Gandalf checks the Balrog'south advance with magisterial censure, "You shall not pass!"

The use of shall every bit the usual time to come marker^{[ dubious – discuss ]} in the first person still persists in some more formal or elevated registers of English. An example is provided by the famous voice communication of Winston Churchill: "We shall fight on the beaches, nosotros shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, nosotros shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.'"

Colored uses [edit]

Example of shall in the pb editorial of the Chicago Tribune after the Chicago Fire, using "shall" to connote formality and seriousness.

Whether or not the in a higher place-mentioned prescriptive rule (shall for the unmarked future in the first person) is adhered to, there are certain meanings in which either will or shall tends to be used rather than the other. Some of these have already been mentioned (see the Specific uses department). Nonetheless, there are too cases in which the pregnant being expressed combines manifestly futurity with some additional implication; these can be referred to as "colored" uses of the hereafter markers.

Thus shall may be used (particularly in the second and third persons) to imply a command, promise or threat made by the speaker (i.due east. that the time to come event denoted represents the will of the speaker rather than that of the discipline). For example:

• You shall regret it shortly. (speaker's threat)
• You shall not pass! (speaker's command)
• You shall go to the ball. (speaker'due south promise)

In the to a higher place sentences, shall might be replaced by will without change of intended significant, although the form with will could also be interpreted as a patently statement well-nigh the expected time to come. The use of shall is oftentimes associated with formality and/or seriousness, in addition to the coloring of the significant. For some specific cases of its formal use, meet the sections below on § Legal apply and § Technical specifications.

(Another, generally archaic, use of shall is in certain dependent clauses with futurity reference, as in "The prize is to be given to whoever shall have done the best." More normal here in mod English is the simple nowadays tense: "whoever does the best"; come across Uses of English language verb forms § Dependent clauses.)

On the other hand, will can be used (in the first person) to emphasize the willingness, desire or intention of the speaker:

• I will lend yous £10,000 at 5% (the speaker is willing to make the loan, simply it will non necessarily be made)
• I will have my way.

Nearly speakers take will every bit the futurity marker in any instance, but when the pregnant is every bit above, even those who follow or are influenced by the prescriptive rule would tend to utilize will (rather than the shall that they would use with a commencement person bailiwick for the uncolored future).

The segmentation of uses of will and shall is somewhat different in questions than in statements; run across the following section for details.

Questions [edit]

In questions, the traditional prescriptive usage is that the auxiliary used should be the 1 expected in the reply. Hence in enquiring factually about the future, one could ask: "Shall you accompany me?" (to accord with the expected reply "I shall", since the rule prescribes shall as the uncolored time to come marker in the start person). To utilise will instead would turn the question into a request. In do, however, shall is almost never used in questions of this type. To mark a factual question as distinct from a request, the going-to future (or simply the nowadays tense) can be used: "Are you going to accompany me?" (or "Are you accompanying me?").

The main use of shall in questions is with a first person field of study (I or we), to make offers and suggestions, or request suggestions or instructions:

• Shall I open up a window?
• Shall we trip the light fantastic toe?
• Where shall we go today?
• What shall I do side by side?

This is mutual in the UK and other parts of the English-speaking earth; it is as well found in the Us, but there should is frequently a less marked alternative. Normally the use of will in such questions would change the meaning to a elementary request for information: "Shall I play goalkeeper?" is an offering or suggestion, while "Volition I play goalkeeper?" is just a question about the expected hereafter situation.

The above meaning of shall is mostly bars to straight questions with a get-go person field of study. In the case of a reported question (even if non reported in the past tense), shall is likely to be replaced past should or some other modal verb such as might: "She is asking if she should open a window"; "He asked if they might dance."

The auxiliary will tin therefore be used in questions either simply to enquire about what is expected to occur in the futurity, or (particularly with the 2d person subject you lot) to make a request:

• Where will tomorrow's match be played? (factual inquiry)
• Volition the new managing director do a proficient job? (research for opinion)
• Will yous marry me? (request)

Legal and technical use [edit]

US legal organisation [edit]

Bryan Garner and Justice Scalia in Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts depict that some legal drafting has sloppy utilise of the word "shall".^{[15] : 1808} Nevertheless, Garner and Scalia conclude that when the word "shall" can reasonably exist understood as mandatory, it ought to be taken that way.^{[fifteen] : 1849} In 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court said ("The word `shall' mostly indicates a command that admits of no discretion on the office of the person instructed to deport out the directive"); Black'south Law Lexicon 1375 (6th ed. 1990) ("As used in statutes ... this word is generally imperative or mandatory").^[xvi]

Legislative acts and contracts sometimes employ "shall" and "shall not" to limited mandatory action and prohibition. However, it is sometimes used to mean "may" or "can". The most famous instance of both of these uses of the word "shall" is the Us Constitution. Claims that "shall" is used to denote a fact, or is not used with the in a higher place different meanings, have caused discussions and have significant consequences for interpreting the text's intended significant.^[17] Lawsuits over the word's meaning are also common.^[1]

Technical contexts [edit]

In many requirement specifications, specially involving software, the words shall and will have special meanings. Most requirement specifications use the word shall to denote something that is required, while reserving the will for simple statement about the futurity (especially since "going to" is typically seen every bit too informal for legal contexts). However, some documents deviate from this convention and employ the words shall, will, and should to denote the strength of the requirement. Some requirement specifications volition define the terms at the outset of the certificate.

Shall and will are distinguished by NASA^[18] and Wikiversity^[19] as follows:

• Shall is usually used to state a device or system's requirements. For example: "The selected generator shall provide a minimum of eighty Kilowatts."
• Volition is more often than not used to state a device or organization's purpose. For example, "The new generator will be used to power the operations tent."

On standards published by International Organization for Standardization (ISO), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), IEEE (Plant of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), requirements with "shall" are the mandatory requirements, meaning, "must", or "take to".^[20] The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) defines shall and must as synonymous terms denoting absolute requirements, and should every bit denoting a somewhat flexible requirement, in RFC documents.^[21]

On specifications and standards published by the United states Department of Defence force (DoD), requirements with "shall" are the mandatory requirements. ("Must" shall not be used to express mandatory provisions. Use the term "shall.") "Will" declares intent or unproblematic futurity, and "should" and "may" express nonmandatory provisions.^{[22] [23] [24]}

Exterior DoD, other parts of the U.S. government advise against using the word shall for three reasons: information technology lacks a single articulate significant, it causes litigation, and it is nearly absent from ordinary spoken language. The legal reference Words and Phrases dedicates 76 pages to summarizing hundreds of lawsuits that centered around the significant of the discussion shall. When referencing a legal or technical requirement, Words and Phrases instead favors must while reserving should for recommendations.^[ane]

Should and would [edit]

Every bit noted in a higher place, should and would originated as the preterite (past tense) forms of shall and will. In some of their uses they can still be identified as past (or conditional) forms of those verbs, but they have too developed some specific meanings of their own.

Contained uses [edit]

The main use of should in mod English is as a synonym of ought to, expressing quasi-obligation, appropriateness, or expectation (it cannot exist replaced by would in these meanings). Examples:

• You lot should non say such things. (it is wrong to practise and then)
• He should move his pawn. (it is appropriate to exercise so)
• Why should yous suspect me? (for what reason is information technology proper to suspect me?)
• Yous should take enough time to finish the work. (a prediction)
• I should be able to come up. (a prediction, implies some uncertainty)
• In that location should be some cheese in the kitchen. (expectation)

Other specific uses of should involve the expression of irrealis mood:

• in condition clauses (protasis), e.g. "If it should rain" or "Should it rain"; see English conditional sentences
• as an alternative to the subjunctive, east.one thousand. "It is of import that he (should) leave"; come across English subjunctive

The main employ of would is in provisional clauses (described in particular in the article on English language conditional sentences):

• I would non be here if you hadn't summoned me.

In this employ, would is sometimes (though rarely) replaced by should when the subject is in the first person (past virtue of the same prescriptive rule that demands shall rather than volition as the normal future mark for that person). This should is institute in stock phrases such as "I should think" and "I should expect". However its apply in more full general cases is quondam-fashioned or highly formal, and can requite rise to ambivalence with the more common use of should to mean ought to. This is illustrated past the following sentences:

• You would repent if you lot saw him. (pure provisional, stating what would happen)
• You should apologize if yous run into him. (states what would be proper)
• I would repent if I saw him. (pure provisional)
• I should apologize if I saw him. (perchance a formal variant of the above, but may be understood to be stating what is proper)

In archaic usage would has been used to indicate present time want. "Would that I were expressionless" means "I wish I were dead". "I would fain" means "I would gladly".

More details of the usage of should, would and other related auxiliaries can be found in the commodity on English modal verbs.

As past of shall and will [edit]

When would and should function every bit past tenses of will and shall, their usage tends to correspond to that of the latter verbs (would is used analogously to will, and should to shall).

Thus would and should tin exist used with "future-in-the-by" meaning, to limited what was expected to happen, or what in fact did happen, afterwards some past time of reference. The utilize of should here (similar that of shall equally a manifestly future marker) is much less common and is generally bars to the first person. Examples:

• He left Bath in 1890, and would never return. (in fact he never returned afterwards that)
• Information technology seemed that information technology would rain. (rain was expected)
• Little did I know that I would (rarer: should) meet her once more the very next day.

Would can also be used every bit the past equivalent of will in its other specific uses, such every bit in expressing habitual deportment (encounter English markers of habitual aspect#Would):

• Last summer we would go fishing a lot. (i.east. we used to go line-fishing a lot)

In particular, would and should are used as the past equivalents of will and shall in indirect speech communication reported in the by tense:

• The ladder will fall. → He said that the ladder would autumn.
• You shall obey me! → He said that I should obey him.
• I shall go pond this afternoon. → I said that I should go swimming in the afternoon.

Every bit with the conditional utilize referred to above, the use of should in such instances tin can pb to ambiguity; in the last case information technology is not clear whether the original argument was shall (expressing plain futurity) or should (meaning "ought to"). Similarly "The archbishop said that nosotros should all sin from time to time" is intended to report the pronouncement that "We shall all sin from time to time" (where shall denotes simple time to come), but instead gives the highly misleading impression that the original word was should (significant "ought to").

See too [edit]

• English verbs
• Grammatical person
• Verbs in English Grammar (wikibook)

References [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Shall and must". plainlanguage,gov . Retrieved August 4, 2014.
2. ^ ^{a b} Kenneth Adams, "Making Sense of 'Shall'", New York Law Journal, Oct 18, 2007.
3. ^ Chadwick C. Busk, "Using Shall or Will to Create Obligations in Business Contracts", Michigan Bar Periodical, pp. 50-52, Oct 2017.
4. ^ "Basic Concepts in Drafting Contracts", presented by Vincent R. Martorana to the New York Country Bar Association, December 10, 2014 (via Reed Smith University).
5. ^ http://apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/newsletter/0052/materials/pp3.pdf^{[ blank URL PDF ]}
6. ^ https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1162&context=transactions
7. ^ https://www.law.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Tips-for-Achieving-Clarity-in-Contract-Drafting.pdf^{[ blank URL PDF ]}
8. ^ Many of the examples are taken from Fowler, H. Westward. (1908). The King'southward English (2nd ed.). Affiliate II. Syntax - Shall and Volition. Retrieved 2009-07-xv .
9. ^ Crystal, David, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, pages 194 and 224, Cambridge Printing Syndicate, New York, NY 1995 ISBN 0-521-40179-eight
10. ^ Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English language Usage, Merriam-Webster, 1989, ISBN 0-87779-132-5
11. ^ "Reade and Collins". The Virginia Academy Mag. 1871. p. 367.
12. ^ Allen, Edward Frank (1938). How to write and speak effective English: a modern guide to good form . The World Syndicate Publishing Company. "I volition drown, no 1 shall save me!").
13. ^ Graham, Ian (2008). Requirements modelling and specification for service oriented architecture. p. /79. ISBN9780470712320.
14. ^ Henry James. The Middle Years.
15. ^ ^{a b} Scalia, Antonin; Garner, Bryan A. (2012). "11. Mandatory/Permissive Canon". Reading Law: The Estimation of Legal Texts (Kindle ed.). St. Paul, MN: Thomson West. ISBN978-0-314-27555-4.
16. ^ National Ass'n v. Defenders of Wild animals , 127 South. Ct. 2518, 2531-2532 (US 2007)..
17. ^ Tillman, Nora Rotter; Tillman, Seth Barrett (2010). "A Fragment on Shall and May". American Periodical of Legal History. 50 (iv): 453–458. doi:10.1093/ajlh/50.iv.453. SSRN 1029001.
18. ^ NASA document Archived December 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
19. ^ "Writing Clear Requirements", in Technical writing specification, Wikiversity
20. ^ "ISO/IEC Directives, Part ii" (PDF) . Retrieved 2013-03-28 .
21. ^ "RFC 2119". Retrieved 2013-03-28 .
22. ^ "Defense and Program-Unique Specifications Format and Content, MIL-STD-961". 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2014-04-29 .
23. ^ "Defense Standards Format and Content, MIL-STD-962". 2008-04-02. Retrieved 2014-04-29 .
24. ^ "Writing Specifications". Retrieved 2018-05-xv .

External links [edit]

Look upward volition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up shall in Wiktionary, the gratuitous dictionary.

• On the Utilize of the Verbs shall and will. By Professor De Morgan
• On the Use of Shall and Will. By Hensleigh Wedgwood, Esq.
• "Shall and Will". Fowler, H. W. 1908. The King's English - thorough word on the subject
• Complete descriptions of the English language Tenses
• Webster 1913 - Entry for Shall
• "The Origins of some Prescriptive Grammar Rules" - quoting The Origins and Evolution of the English Language, Pyles and Algeo, 1993
• The Rise of Prescriptivism in English (PDF format)

ligooks1968.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shall_and_will