I Shall Drown: Will vs. Shall

When was the last time you used the word shan’t [shall not]? Unless you’re British, telling your friend, “I shan’t go to the theatre with you on Saturday night,” will likely raise an eyebrow. Compared to the British, Americans are lackadaisical in their use of will versus shall. Shall is sometimes used to express determination. In most cases we know when to use each of these verbs simply by the way they sound in a sentence, but do we understand the rule of usage? Probably not.

Bossy Commands vs. Polite Requests

If you’re annoyed with someone who is pestering you, you might utter, “Will you just go away!” In this example you’re being demonstrative. It is clear you want them to leave immediately. You wouldn’t say, “Shall you go away!”

If you want someone to do you a favor, make your request a polite one. “Will you please bring me a glass of wine?” If you said, “Shall you bring me a glass of wine?” the person you’re asking might respond with, “I don’t know, shall I?” and then walk out of the room thinking you’re weird. Then you would have to get your lazy butt off the sofa and get your own wine.

Legal Speech

Shall is often used in legal documents to indicate binding obligation. For example, contracts contain this type of sentence:

The Publisher shall have the sole and exclusive right to publish or to license the Work for publication in the English language, etc.

Even though the word will works fine, shall is the chosen word in legal speech.

The Future of Future Tenses

The verb will is like a crystal ball. According to The Chicago Manual of Style, it is needed when referring to a future act, state, or condition. For example:

She will sing the National Anthem before the baseball game.

It’s a done deal. She’s been given the honor and, unless she meets with an unfortunate occurrence or gets stage fright, we can expect her to perform. In this case, will is not interchangeable with shall.

She shall sing the National Anthem at the baseball game.

Here shall indicates that she is capable, or has been given permission to sing, but doesn’t necessarily mean she is going to sing.

Some grammarians believe the future tense is going the way of the buffalo. So, will the future tense disappear? Maybe. Shall the future tense disappear? Its existence is out of our control.

Strunk and White show the difference simply in their classic grammar book, The Elements of Style. They use two examples:

A swimmer going down for the third time cries out, “I shall drown; no one will save me!”

But if that swimmer wanted to drown, he would say, possibly in a quiet, pathetic voice, “I will drown; no one shall save me.”