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Webster 1913 Edition


Shall

Shall

,
Verb.
I.
& auxili
ary.
[
imp.
Should
.]
[OE.
shal
,
schal
, imp.
sholde
,
scholde
, AS.
scal
,
sceal
, I am obliged, imp.
scolde
,
sceolde
, inf.
sculan
; akin to OS.
skulan
, pres.
skal
, imp.
skolda
, D.
zullen
, pres.
zal
, imp.
zoude
,
zou
, OHG.
solan
,
scolan
, pres.
scal
,
sol
. imp.
scolta
,
solta
, G.
sollen
, pres.
soll
, imp.
sollte
, Icel.
skulu
, pres.
skal
, imp.
skyldi
, SW.
skola
, pres.
skall
, imp.
skulle
, Dan.
skulle
, pres.
skal
, imp.
skulde
, Goth.
skulan
, pres.
skal
, imp.
skulda
, and to AS.
scyld
guilt, G.
schuld
guilt, fault, debt, and perhaps to L.
scelus
crime.]
[Shall is defective, having no infinitive, imperative, or participle.]
1.
To owe; to be under obligation for.
[Obs.]
“By the faith I shall to God”
Court of Love.
2.
To be obliged; must.
[Obs.]
“Me athinketh [I am sorry] that I shall rehearse it her.”
Chaucer.
3.
As an auxiliary, shall indicates a duty or necessity whose obligation is derived from the person speaking;
as, you
shall
go; he shall go
; that is, I order or promise your going. It thus ordinarily expresses, in the second and third persons, a command, a threat, or a promise. If the auxillary be emphasized, the command is made more imperative, the promise or that more positive and sure. It is also employed in the language of prophecy;
as, “the day
shall
come when . . . , ”
since a promise or threat and an authoritative prophecy nearly coincide in significance. In shall with the first person, the necessity of the action is sometimes implied as residing elsewhere than in the speaker;
as, I
shall
suffer; we shall see
; and there is always a less distinct and positive assertion of his volition than is indicated by will. “I shall go” implies nearly a simple futurity; more exactly, a foretelling or an expectation of my going, in which, naturally enough, a certain degree of plan or intention may be included; emphasize the shall, and the event is described as certain to occur, and the expression approximates in meaning to our emphatic “I will go.” In a question, the relation of speaker and source of obligation is of course transferred to the person addressed; as, “Shall you go?” (answer, “I shall go”); “Shall he go?” i. e., “Do you require or promise his going?” (answer, “He shall go”.) The same relation is transferred to either second or third person in such phrases as “You say, or think, you shall go;” “He says, or thinks, he shall go.” After a conditional conjunction (as if, whether) shall is used in all persons to express futurity simply;
as, if I, you, or he
shall
say they are right
. Should is everywhere used in the same connection and the same senses as shall, as its imperfect. It also expresses duty or moral obligation;
as, he
should
do it whether he will or not
. In the early English, and hence in our English Bible,
shall
is the auxiliary mainly used, in all the persons, to express simple futurity. (Cf.
Will
,
Verb.
T.
)
Shall
may be used elliptically; thus, with an adverb or other word expressive of motion go may be omitted.
“He to England shall along with you.”
Shak.
Shall and will are often confounded by inaccurate speakers and writers. Say: I shall be glad to see you. Shall I do this? Shall I help you? (not Will I do this?) See
Will
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Shall

SHALL

,
1. Shall is primarily in the present, and in our mother tongue was followed by a verb in the infinitive, like other verbs. 'Ic sceal fram the beon gefullod.' I have need to be baptized of thee. 'Ic nu sceal singan sar-cwidas.' I must now sing mornful songs.
We still use shall and should before another verb in the infinitive, without the sign to; but significance of shall is considerably deflected from its primitive sense. It is now treated as a mere auxiliary to other verbs, serving to form some of the tenses. In the present tense, shall, before a verb in the infinitive, forms the future tense; but its force and effect are different with different persons or personal pronouns. Thus in the first person, shall simply foretells or declares what will take place; as, I or we shall ride to town on Monday. This declaration simply informs another of a fact that is to take place. The sense of shall here is changed from an expression of need or duty, to that of previous statement or information, grounded on intention or resolution. When uttered with emphasis, 'I shall go,' it expresses firm determination, but not a promise.
2. In the second and third persons, shall implies a promise, command or determination. 'You shall receive your wages,' 'he shall receive his wages,' imply that you or he ought to receive them; but usage gives these phrases the force of a promise in the person uttering them.
When shall is uttered with emphasis in such phrases, it expresses determination in the speaker, and implies an authority to enforce the act. 'Do you refuse to go? Does he refuse to go? But you or he shall go.'
3. Shall I go, shall he go, interrogatively, asks, for permission or direction. But shall you go, asks for information of another's intention.
4. But after another verb, shall, in the third person, simply foretells. He says that he shall leave town to-morrow. So also in the second person; you say that you shall ride to-morrow.
5. After if, and some verbs which expresscondition or supposition, shall, in all the persons, simply foretells; as,
If I shall say, or we shall say,
Thou shalt say, ye or you shall say,

Definition 2024


shall

shall

English

Verb

shall (third-person singular simple present shall, present participle -, simple past should, past participle -)

  1. (modal auxiliary verb, defective) Used before a verb to indicate the simple future tense in the first person singular or plural.
    I shall sing in the choir tomorrow.
    I hope that we shall win the game.
    • 1900, L. Frank Baum , The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23
      "Then, having used up the powers of the Golden Cap, I shall give it to the King of the Monkeys, that he and his band may thereafter be free for evermore."
  2. Used similarly to indicate determination or obligation in the second and third persons singular or plural.
    (determination): You shall go to the ball!
    (obligation): Citizens shall provide proof of identity.
  3. Used in questions with the first person singular or plural to suggest a possible future action.
    Shall I help you with that?
    Shall we go out later?
    Let us examine that, shall we?
  4. (obsolete) To owe.

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

Usage notes

  • Shall is about one fourth as common relative to will in North America as in the UK. Some in North America may consider it formal or even pompous.
  • In the past, will and shall have been used similarly as auxiliary verbs for the future tense. The simple future tense traditionally uses shall for the first person ("I" and "we"), and will for the second and third persons.
    I shall go.
    You will go.
    • An emphatic future tense, indicating volition of the speaker, reverses the two words, using will for the first person and shall for the second and third person.
      I will go.
      You shall go.
    • Usage can be reversed in questions and in dependent clausesespecially with indirect discourse. For example: Shall you do it? anticipates your response I shall do it. Or: he says that he shall win or he expects that he shall win anticipate his saying I shall win, not I will win.

Translations

See also

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: down · good · never · #100: shall · most · where · those

Anagrams