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''Shall'' and '''''will''''' are both Modal Verbs in English primarily used to express Futurity . ETYMOLOGY Both ''shall'' and ''will'' are verbs of ancient Germanic ancestry. In Proto-Indo-European , an Inflected future tense existed, but that tense was lost in Germanic. In all Germanic languages, the future tense is formed with auxiliary verbs; this was the case in Gothic and the earliest recorded expressions of Germanic languages.
In addition to ''shall'' and ''will'', other verbs were used as future auxiliaries in Old English, including ''mun'', a Defective Verb that is the immediate source of Scots ''maun'', and also related to Modern English ''must''.
To the extent that it is claimed that ''shall'' and ''will'' carry different meanings depending on which Grammatical Person they are conjugated in, they represent an example of Suppletion , the commingling of words from separate roots into a single paradigm. The two words have entirely different etymologies, and the distinction (if it exists, or ever really existed) cannot be justified on etymological grounds. According to '' Merriam Webster's Dictionary Of English Usage '', the distinction, or supposed distinction, in meaning between ''shall'' and ''will'' as markers of a simple future arose from the practice of English schools in the Fourteenth Century and their Latin exercises. It was the custom in these schools to use ''will'' to translate Latin ''velle''; because ''shall'' had no exact equivalent in Latin, it was used to translate the Latin future tense. John Wycliffe used it consistently in this manner in his Bible Translation into Middle English . ''Will'' was already beginning to predominate as the marker for the simple future through all grammatical persons as the marker for the simple future in English, and is the usual marker for a simple future in Chaucer , for example. The usage of the schools kept ''shall'' alive in this role. The most influential proponent of the distinction was John Wallis , whose 1653 ''Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae'' stated "The rule is... to express a future event without emotional overtones, one should say I shall, we shall, but you/he/she/they will; conversely, for emphasis, willfulness, or insistence, one should say I/we will, but you/he/she/they shall". TRADITIONAL USAGE Pure system ''Shall'' and ''will'' are now most often used as Auxiliary or Modal Verbs . However, they have their origins as main verbs and in what is known as the pure system are still used in their original Old English senses, regardless of Grammatical Person :
(In German, these are still the principal meanings of the cognates, ''sollen'' and ''wollen''.) Hence:
''(examples from Fowler )'' Simple future Old English did not have a Future Tense , but because the verbs ''shall'' and ''will'' hint at one, they were conscripted by the language's development and became modal verbs. In declarative sentences under the pure system, ''shall'' is not used in the First Person , since one does not usually give commands to oneself. So ''shall'' became the auxiliary verb for expressing simple futurity in the first person. ''Will'', on the other hand, is not often used in the Second and Third Person s in statements under the pure system, and so second and third person ''will'' became the auxiliary verb for expressing simple futurity in the second and third persons:
Hence:
Modal future As a modification of the simple future, the verbs ''shall'' and ''will'' are used to express the speaker's wish, intention, menace, assurance, consent, refusal, promise, offer, permission, command, etc. Under this colored future system, the verbs are really used as extensions of the pure system verbs ''shall'' and ''will'':
Hence:
Commentary ''Shall'' is sometimes stronger than ''will'': "You will stay?" – "I shan't." ''Will'', however, is also used to express commands in coloquial speech: "You will do your homework." Or, surprisingly, to soften a request, though ''would'' is more common here. "Will you kindly hand me that pen?" (or "Would you kindly ...") Another point to note is that the auxiliary used in questions should be the one expected in the answer: "Shall you accompany me?" – "I shall." To use ''will'' here would be a request; Going-to Future would express more the intention than mere futurity. For example: "Should you like it?" expects the answer "Yes, I should" or "No, I shouldn't", whereas "Would you like it?" expects the answer "Yes, you would" (or the corresponding negative) ''from the same speaker'' (or used rhetorically), since "you would" is the right form for the speaker, but not for the respondent (if he or she exists).
In fields of engineering and architecture the words: "shall" , "will" , and "must" do have distinct meanings within these engineering related professions. Furthermore within trades which rely on engineering or architecural drawings in order to do their work, "shall", "will" and "must" all have specific meaning based on if current and future tenses are used, and for the context of the word. CURRENT COMMON USAGE At the beginning of the 20th Century , the various special cases made it necessary for Fowler's ''The King's English'' to devote 20 pages to the rules for ''shall'' vs. ''will'', with the comment "the idiomatic use, while it comes by nature to southern Englishmen ... is so complicated that those who are not to the manner born can hardly acquire it". According to the English Grammarian Charles Talbut Onions , the correct Idiom atic use of ''shall'' and ''will'' was an infallible test of the true English speaker, since American, Irish, and Scottish speakers have such difficulty using the words correctly. There is an illustrative old joke about the Scotsman who drowned in a river because he had cried "I will die! Nobody shall help me!" Many current authorities, however, regard this approach as too formal, arguing that '' in print disregard it". The rule has even less force in American English , where ''shall'' has a much more restricted role, and the Negative contraction ''shan't'' does not occur. "I shall" as the simple future is quickly passing out of all usage as the first person increasingly mirrors the second and third: that is, "I/we will" is understood as being equivalent in meaning to "you will", and "I shall" means the same as "you shall". The old should-would distinction partially lives on with its sense of obligation (which is really command expressed in the conditional) for ''should'', whereas ''would'' has lost any identifiable sense of wish except as an archaism or affectation; it is now used exclusively as a simple-conditional; ''should'' is synonymous with ''ought to''. Nevertheless, there are notable remaining uses of ''shall'' and ''should'' which remain present in modern language:
It is advisable not to use ''shall'' at all if one does not understand the traditional difference well. Improper usage is immediately apparent to those who make the distinction, and the speaker may appear pretentious. To those who do not distinguish between ''shall'' and ''will'', ''shall'' may seem archaic or affected. ''Shall'' is a sensitive word and should be used with caution. In American English, the traditional differences are not used very much, and hardly at all among the younger generation. The current tendency is that ''shall'' is falling out of use entirely, and even ''will'' is used less than it has been in the past; their jobs have been largely appropriated by ''going to'' or ''have got to''. ''Should'' and ''would'', which are under no threat of extinction, are both used either as conditionals or to refer to future events in the past; ''should'' to express obligation, and ''would'' to express wish. PRONUNCIATION The negative form of ''shall'' is ''shall not''; the Contraction is '''''shan't'''''. ''Shall'' is Pronounced in two different ways: SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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