2.6.1 Shall
Examples of errors:
The meanings of shall can be summarized as follows:
1. Shall is used as an alternative to will to indicate future time reference, but only in the first person and primarily in British English. Shall and will are synonymous in this usage, though there is a certain amount of prescriptive pressure (in British English) to use shall in writing and in more formal speech. Both forms, depending on context, may express intention on the part of the speaker, as well as futurity (cf. Leech la.71: §889 124ff.; Nehls 1978:§3.3.1). For . example:
I shall look forward to hearing from you.
We shall see.
I shall be gone by Monday.
Shall also occurs in this usage as an alternative to will in the main clause of real conditional sentences, e.g.:
If we leave now, we shall arrive on time.
2. With second and third person subjects, and again primarily in British English, shall sometimes expresses an attitude of condescending willingness (weak volition--cf. Leech 1971:§124) on the part of the speaker, who in this case is not the subject. In sentences like the following (Leech's examples), will would be preferred by Americans and most especially younger) British speakers:
He shall be rewarded if he is patient.
Good dog, you shall have a bone when we get home.
You shall stay with us as long as you like.
3. The least common use of shall is to indicate strong insistence (strong volition--cf. Leech 1971:§124) on the part of the speaker. This occurs only with second and third person subjects and is more or less obsolescent except perhaps in very rhetorical speech or in legal and quasi-legal documents (e.g. contracts, rules for games, etc.):
No one shall stop me!
Victory shall be ours!
The owner shall maintain the property in good condition.
A player who bids incorrectly shall forfeit fifty points
4. In questions shall is used to make suggestions or ask for instructions. This is the only use of shall still current in American English. The difference between shall and will in Shall/will I open the window? is that shall is tantamount to a suggestion ('Is it ok if I open the window?), whereas will--unlikely to occur at all here--would simply ask a question about a possible future event ('Is it true that I will open the window?'). Likewise, in What shall/will we do? shall asks for instructions or suggestions and will asks for a definite answer ('What is it that we are going to do?'). In American English will in questions can also express perplexity or helplessness on the part of the speaker, e.g.:
What will I do now?
How will I get home?
In such sentences shall would imply that the speaker expects a suggestion; will implies that the speaker doubts that any suggestion or answer to his question is forthcoming.
Shall in (1) and (2) would only be possible in sense 3, possibly in the context of some sort of formal charter or program defining the aims of an organization-but in this case the first should in (2) would also be replaced by shall. In the context of a discursive essay on language teaching methods (cf. (1)) or ecology (cf. (2)), however, shall is inappropriate. In all of these sentences should or ought to (cf. 2.6.2, sense 2) would be the most natural and likely expression to occur.
Shall in questions (sense 4) is used primarily with the first person. When it occurs with a third person subject, it implies that the speaker has some control over the subject, as in Leech's example (1971:84):
Shall Gwen do your shopping-for you?
Since this is an offer of help, the speaker must be in a position to follow through with it (e.g. the speaker is offering the services of her daughter to a neighbor). This is not @he case in (3), which calls for the normal question form of should, meaning 'What would be desirable for them to do with their money?' In (4), coming at the close of an essay describing the recent revolutionary troubles in Iran, if we are to understand shall here in sense 4, the sentence would be spoken with rising intonation like any other (rhetorical) question. This is conceivable, but would have the force of a deferential suggestion, whereas what the author intended was rather an imploration, a stronger call for the reader to join him in his hope for the Persian nation. Thus we shall (in sense 1), we will, we must, we should, let us, etc. would all be more suitable than shall in sense 4.