{"id":2739,"date":"2018-05-01T23:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=2739"},"modified":"2023-09-20T08:30:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T13:30:17","slug":"shall-i-or-will-i-use-the-right-auxiliary-verb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/shall-i-or-will-i-use-the-right-auxiliary-verb\/","title":{"rendered":"Shall<\/em> I or Will<\/em> I Use the Right Auxiliary Verb?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few will ever forget the words spoken by Winston Churchill in June 1940 under the thickening shadow of Nazi aggression:<\/p>\n

“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a moment of such immortal conviction, none would have thought to question whether Churchill was using the correct auxiliary verb to express his nation’s resolve. His words are as powerful and inspiring today as they were more than 80 years ago.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding, if English teachers of the day had reviewed Churchill’s speech before he gave it, they would have alerted the leader to the usage of\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0versus\u00a0will<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u2022 To express a belief<\/strong> regarding a future action or state, use shall<\/em>. To express determination<\/strong> or promise<\/strong> (as Churchill was), use will<\/em>. As a further example, a man who slips from a roof with no one around and hangs on to it by his fingers will cry, “I shall<\/em> fall!” A man who climbs to a roof in order to<\/em> fall from it will cry, “I will<\/em> fall!”<\/p>\n

\u2022 To simply communicate the future tense (without emphasis on\u00a0determination<\/em>,\u00a0promise<\/em>, or\u00a0belief<\/em>) in formal writing, use\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0for the first person (I<\/em>,\u00a0we<\/em>) and\u00a0will<\/em> for the second and third persons (you, he, she, they<\/em>):\u00a0I shall go to the store tomorrow. They will go to the store tomorrow.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such established grammatical strictures once made discerning\u00a0shall<\/em> from\u00a0will<\/em> easy for English users. Through the years, however, the words’ functions have blurred; in common writing and speech, they are often interchangeable and seldom precise.<\/p>\n

Adding to the matter, style and grammar sources offer differing views on when to use\u00a0shall<\/em> or\u00a0will<\/em>. The\u00a0Harbrace College Handbook<\/em> asserts the auxiliaries are transposable for the first, second,\u00a0and<\/em> third person. It also declares\u00a0will<\/em> is more common than\u00a0shall<\/em>;\u00a0shall<\/em> is used mainly in questions (Shall we eat?<\/em>) and might also be used in emphatic statements (We shall overcome<\/em>).<\/p>\n

It further upholds the teaching of Churchill’s day to use\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0in the first person and\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0in the second and third to express the simple future tense or an expectation:\u00a0I shall stay to eat. He will stay to chat with us.<\/em><\/p>\n

To communicate determination or promise, however, it slightly departs from the Queen’s classic English. Rather than always use\u00a0will<\/em>, it flips its order for the future tense or an expectation (i.e.,\u00a0will<\/em> in the first person;\u00a0shall<\/em> in the second and third). Grammatical form for those\u00a0intent<\/em>\u00a0on falling from a roof would thus be “I will fall!” (first person) or “You shall fall!” (second person).<\/p>\n

Perhaps more pliable and contemporary,\u00a0The Rinehart Guide to Grammar and Usage<\/em> suggests the words’ loose and inconsistent usages have rendered them identical. This other book’s only discernible guideline is that\u00a0shall<\/em> is the more stuffy of the two auxiliaries; it seldom appears anymore except in a question or with the first-person\u00a0I<\/em> or\u00a0we<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Moving in yet another direction,\u00a0The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em> directs us to use\u00a0shall<\/em> to express determination in\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0circumstances (I shall win the election<\/em>.\u00a0You shall win the election<\/em>.\u00a0She shall win the election.<\/em>). It also points out that either\u00a0will<\/em> or\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0may be used in the first person when not emphasizing determination:\u00a0I shall stay to eat. I will stay to chat with them.<\/em>\u00a0For the second and third persons, use\u00a0will<\/em> unless emphasizing determination:\u00a0He will stay to eat<\/em>\u00a0but\u00a0They shall win the election<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>\u00a0puts forth that\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0is the auxiliary verb for the future tense, which conveys an expected action, state, or condition (Either he or I will stay to eat<\/em>). It further suggests that\u00a0will<\/em> is now more common and preferred than\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0in most contexts. In American English, it says,\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0can replace\u00a0will<\/em>, but the most typical usage will be in first-person questions (Shall we stay to eat?<\/em>) and in statements of legal requirement (You shall appear in court three weeks from today<\/em>). It further specifies that must<\/em>\u00a0is a better word than\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0for statements of legal requirement.<\/p>\n

In his seminal book\u00a0The Careful Writer<\/em>, Theodore M. Bernstein says the heck with it all: A speech such as Churchill’s proves we can override any grammatical doctrine for\u00a0shall<\/em> or\u00a0will<\/em>. He notes that if anything,\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0appears to be the favored auxiliary in most declarative sentences and\u00a0shall<\/em> is used for a touch of formality. In other words, no matter when or where you use\u00a0shall<\/em> or\u00a0will<\/em>, you’re probably right.<\/p>\n

We agree\u2014but you don’t have to. If you prefer strict and clear guidelines, they exist: Simply choose your stylebook. If on the other hand you believe\u00a0shall<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0will<\/em>\u00a0should be free to stand in for each other, you already have such privilege to swap.<\/p>\n

So let’s write as we will, shall we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few will ever forget the words spoken by Winston Churchill in June 1940 under the thickening shadow of Nazi aggression: “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and strength in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,43,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-pronouns","category-subject-and-verb-agreement","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6683,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions\/6683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}