Modal Auxiliary Verbs - Shall  

The modal auxiliary verb shall is used in many of the same ways as will: to form future tenses, to make requests or offers, to complete conditional sentences, or to issue maxims or commands. Although will is generally preferred in modern English (especially American English), using shall adds an additional degree of politeness or formality to the sentence that will sometimes lacks.

Traditionally, shall is only used to form the future simple and future continuous tenses when I or we is the subject, though this is not a strict rule (and does not apply at all when issuing commands, as we’ll see).

The future tenses are most often formed using will or be going to.

We can also use shall to add formality or politeness to these constructions, especially the future simple tense and the future continuous tense. For example:

(*Contracting shall and not into shan’t, while not incorrect, sounds overly formal and stuffy in modern speech and writing; for the most part, it is not used anymore.)

It is also possible, though far less common, to use shall in the future perfect and future perfect continuous tenses as well:

When we create interrogative sentences using shall and without question words, it is usually to make polite offers, invitations, or suggestions, as in:

When we form an interrogative sentence with a question word (who, what, where, when, or how), shall is used to politely seek the advice or opinion of the listener about a future decision, as in:

Like will, we can use shall in conditional sentences using if to express a likely hypothetical outcome. This is known as the first conditional. For example:

While will is often used to form commands, we use shall when issuing more formal directives or maxims, as might be seen in public notices or in a formal situation, or to express a reprimand or obligation in a formal way. When used in this way, shall no longer has to be used solely with I or we as the subject. For example:

In many cases, modal auxiliary verbs can be used in place of others to create slightly different meanings. For example, we can use the word should in place of shall when issuing a command that is not mandatory, but rather is a guideline or recommendation. If, however, we want to express that the command or maxim is an absolute requirement, we can use must instead of shall in this context.

Explore the section Substituting Modal Verbs to see how and when other modal auxiliary verbs overlap.