Hit or myth: ‘I shall’ is more polite than ‘I will’

You may have a vague memory of once being told to use I shall for formal occasions, but is it too formal? Too old-fashioned? Will people point and laugh? Or are shall and will simply interchangeable? Let’s explore, shall we?

Modal (helping) verbs

Shall and will are modal verbs (sometimes called ‘helping verbs’). These combine with the main verb to indicate how it should be read. Specifically, shall and will show that we’re referring to the future. For example, in the title of the well-known protest song, We shall overcome. Or:

You shall go to the ball, Cinderella.

Here, the main verb is go, and shall tells us that the ball is in the future. It may also tell us more, about the mood of the sentence, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

History

The history of these words can get a bit complicated. So you can skip straight to the verdict if you just want a straight answer.

Those sticking it out for dinner-party fodder may like to know that we have John Wallis, a seventeenth century mathematician and author of Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae mostly to blame for promoting the theories below.

Old English verbs

Once upon a time, in Old English, shall and will were proper verbs. Shall indicated obligation or command, while will meant wish or want.

It was deemed that the first person (I/we) should take will – as you can know what you wish but not what others do – while the second (you) and third person (he/she/it/they) would take shall – as you don’t give yourself commands. Though you might ask for commands, or about the wishes of others, so you could say Shall I/we? and Will you/he/she/they?

Still with us?

Coloured future: expressing intention, determination or promise

At this time there was no future tense separate from the present tense, and people began to use shall and will with other verbs to refer to upcoming events. In this usage there were still the traces of the original meanings of command and wish – expanded to include promise, intention, determination or threat on the part of the speaker. The usage therefore held on to the rules above: I and we with will; you, she, he, it and they with shall.

You shall go to the ball (I promise)

You shall be home by midnight (I command)

I will be crowned Queen of the world! (I am determined)

They shall rue the day they stole my crown (I threaten)

Simple future

Now we come to that half-remembered rule that some hold so dear. The funny thing is, it essentially uses the leftovers of the rules above. The combinations not yet in use became those to use for expressing the simple future: I and we with shall; you, he, she, it and they with will.

I shall go to work on Monday

You will be 32 in February

They will come to your party

And compare the above vow to become Queen of the world (and I will) with the simple statement:

I shall be crowned Queen of the world. (The ceremony’s at 12.00.)

(Also, note that  should and  would follow the same – ahem – rules as  shall and  will.)

Shall we drop it?

If you think this is ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated, then you’re not alone. Or wrong, for that matter.

In his 1908 style guide The King’s English, Henry Fowler – just before he spent 15+ pages (yes, really) laying out the rules – made this disclaimer: ‘while [the correct use of shall and will] comes by nature to southern Englishmen [… it] is so complicated that those who are not born to the manner can hardly acquire it.’ You wonder why he didn’t simply stop there.

The rules have never been consistently applied, according to Pam Peters in The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. ‘These paradigms were, however, enshrined in textbooks of later centuries and still taught a few decades ago,’ writes Peters. ‘Their neglect is one of the better consequences of abandoning the teaching of grammar in schools.’

Even in legal language, where shall does still regularly appear, to mean ‘has a duty to’, there are those who would like to replace it – because it is so often misused ­– with will or must.

Verdict: don’t worry about it

Yes, shall does add a touch of formality and can emphasise determination – and there’s nothing to stop you following the above rules to the letter, be you a southern Englishman or nay. The late professor of linguistics R L Trask had some good advice: ‘Do not try to use shall if the word does not feel entirely natural, and especially don’t try to use it merely in the hope of sounding more elegant. Doing so will probably produce something that is acceptable to no one.’

You’d also be in a minority: shall is already peculiar not just to the UK, but to England alone. And even here, will is increasingly used in all instances, and the world has yet to grind to a halt. This is one of those times when common sense and common usage can sit happily together.

In the end, perhaps we shall overcome, but will shall? Probably not.