Whats the difference between

will and shall?

Will or shall? These two verbs are the subject of my latest endeavour to shed some light on the use of
modal verbs in English. As with can versus could and may as opposed to might, there are certain rules in
standard British English grammar regarding the distinction between will and shall which you should be
aware of, even if the current consensus is that these two verbs are generally interchangeable in most, but
not all, situations. The situation is slightly different in American English, too. The following is an
exploration of the main uses of will and shall.

I shall be in Japan, but you will be in New York

The verb will is used in a number of ways, but we chiefly use it (followed by the infinitive of another verb)
to talk about the future:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Hopefully, we will have a very good election.

Life in the village will never be the same again.
When will you go to New York?
I will be in Japan this time next year.

The negative form is will not, which is often shortened to wont:

5. I wont be away for long.
6. These phones will not be available till next year.
7. We will not understand the situation until the facts have been collected.
The die-hard grammatical sticklers amongst you might have already started jumping up and down after
reading the above examples. Why? Well, in traditional British grammar, the rule is that will should only be
used with second and third person pronouns (you; he, she, it, they). With first person pronouns (I and we),
the correct verb to talk about the future is shall. This means that strictly speaking, examples 1, 4, 5, and
7 are ungrammatical, and should instead read:
Hopefully, we shall have a very good election.
I shall be in Japan this time next year.
I shant be away for long.
We shall not understand the situation until the facts have been collected.
In practice, however, and especially when speaking, people are more likely to shorten willand shall when
these verbs are used with pronouns (well, theyll, etc) and therefore theres no need to worry too much
about the distinction when referring to the future, unless youre writing in a very formal situation or having
to conform to an organizations style guide.
Equally, not all varieties of British English use shall in these senses. Some varieties of English, including
Scottish and Irish English, tend to use will instead of shall when talking about the future, no matter if its
with the first, second, or third person pronoun.

Determination or duty: you shall go to the ball!

Returning to our fairy godmother, her statement to Cinderella neatly illustrates the other main use
of shall and will: to express a strong feeling that something must definitely happen, or that someone must
do something as a duty. In a complete turnaround, traditional grammar dictates that I and we should be
accompanied by will in such situations, whereas shall is used with you, he, she, it, and they:

I will ensure that every single cent is spent on the project for which it was intended.
We wont put up with this situation any longer!
You shall not leave the house after 9pm.
Again, this distinction is less strictly followed nowadays, but its advisable to be aware of it if youre writing
formal English. Given that legalese is very formal, youre likely to encounter shall in legal documents or in
rules and regulations:
The primary residence of the children shall remain with the mother.
The evidence on the Oxford English Corpus (OEC) reveals that there are 187,945 instances of shall on
this two-billion-word database. When we break these figures down by subject, 46,030 (24%) of the
occurrences of shall fall into the Law subject area, meaning that they are unlikely to be expressing the
future tense, and most probably are referring to a legal duty or formal instruction.

Will you stop that!

Will, but never shall, is also used to ask or order someone to do something:

X
X

Will you buy some bread while youre at the shops?

Will you stop making that noise!
Make me a coffee, shall you?
Shall you sit down now!

However, if you want to express yourself more politely in such requests, its better to usewould or could:
Could you buy some bread while youre at the shops?
Make me a coffee, would you?

Shall we dance?
Although shall is far less common than will, which has over 7 million occurrences on the OEC, all is not
entirely lost with regard to shall! It has its place in the limelight when it comes to questions, when its used
in British and American English to make suggestions or offers, or to ask for advice:
Shall I shut the door?
Where shall we go today?
Shall we go for a drink?

The view from America

Turning to the OEC to analyse American usage, we find that shall is not only less frequent than will, but
its also less common than in British English: 28.7% of the total occurrences are British, while 17.8% are
American. When talking about the future, will is dominant and shall seems to have fallen into disuse.
According to Garners Modern American Usage, shall is peripheral and occurs mainly in questions
expressing suggestions or seeking agreement and in legal usage (see above). Garner also states that in
law it is declining because of increased recognition of its hopeless ambiguity as actually misused by
lawyers.
Secondly, the shortened form of shall not, namely shant, is rare in American English. Of the total number
of 993 instances of shant on the OEC, only 130 (about 13%) are categorized as US English.

Will or shall in the future?

Overall, you can rest assured that, especially when talking about the future, will and shallare equally
acceptable, and very few peoples hackles will be raised should you inadvertently use will with a first
person pronoun. As Pocket Fowlers Modern English Usage states: there is not much doubt that will will
win, and shall shall lose, in the end.

The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

Shall in Britain
The stickler version and British version line up pretty well with each other: tradition holds that you
use shall to indicate the future if you are using first person (I or we) and will if you are using second or
third person (you, he, she, or they).
So, in England, it would be perfectly normal to say, I shall have tea with my grandmother tomorrow. In
America, that would sound odd. We Americans would be more likely to have coffee and to say, I will take
my grandmother out for a latte tomorrow.

Shall With Determination

The British traditionally use shall to express determination or intention on the part of the speaker or
someone other than the subject of the verb. Fowlers offers an example from British author Evelyn
Waugh: One day you shall know my full story. This does seem to offer a different connotation than One
day you will know my full story. It makes the author sound more determined. However, using shall in
this way isn't common in America (1).

Shall in America
In America, will has replaced shall in all but a few cases. If you use shall in the British way during normal
conversation, you might end up sounding pretentious or haughty (2).
The most common two places youll see shall in America are in legal documents and in lofty prose (3).

The Legal Shall

Shall in a legal sense often indicates explicit obligation. If youve signed a lease lately, youve probably
encountered a sentence like this: This lease shall commence on January 1. In general usage, though, you
use must or should to express obligation: You must pay your rent on time. However, some sources say
that even American lawyers may be moving away from shall because of its alleged ambiguity (1).

The Lofty Shall

Even if lawyers give up shall, great orators and authors will probably still use it to deliver uplifting prose.
Youll encounter shall in the Bible, and youve probably heard it in famous songs or speeches. We shall
overcome comes to mind, as does the end of the Gettysburg Address: that we here highly resolve that
these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth (4).

The Polite Shall

Shall does have a couple of other legitimate uses in American English. You might hear it in a first-person
question in which the speaker is being polite or offering an invitation: Shall I take your coat, maam? or
using playful formality, as in Shall we dance?

The Idiomatic Shall

Its also possible to use shall in place of will if using will would be unidiomatic, for example, Ill just go
buy some more milk then, shall I? (1). However, to me, this sounds more British than American. I would
guess that most Americans wouldn't say that sentence, Bonnie says. Its hard for me to tell because I was
born and raised in London but then moved to America at age 10.
I think I tend to use shall more than my American-born husband, so I asked him his opinion. He stated,
'No American under 80 uses shall.' That's probably 99% true, unless youre a lawyer or a regular citizen
who is being extra polite or quoting the Bible.
The bottom line is that will has replaced shall in almost all cases in American English. If youre tired of
using will, feel free to use be going to instead, as in This podcast is going to be over momentarily.
Administrative
This show was written by Bonnie Trenga, author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, who
blogs at http://sentencesleuth.blogspot.com.

References
1. Burchfield, R. W, ed. The New Fowlers Modern English Usage. Third edition. New York: Oxford, 1996,
pp. 706-07.
2. American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
2005, p. 426.
3. OConner, P. Woe Is I: The Grammarphobes Guide to Better English in Plain English. New York:
Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 71.
4. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm (accessed July 2, 2008).

May or might?
May or might? Both words are part of a special set of verbs known as modal auxiliary verbs, which means
that theyre used together with other verbs to talk about permission, possibility, suggestions, etc. Over the
years, the usage recommendations regardingmight and may have become more flexible, but there are
still points which you should be aware of, especially if youre writing or speaking in formal situations. For a
quick overview, check out this video. Below the video, youll find some written-out guidelines to the main
issues:

May or might overview

The verb may is used in five main ways:

to talk about a possible situation: Those reports may prove to be false.

to politely ask for permission to do something: May we come in?
to politely give someone permission to do something: Thats all for now, you may go.
to admit that something is the case before stating a contrasting fact: The chorus may look silly, but
they sound wonderful.
to express a wish or hope: May they be very happy in the future.

Basically, might is the past tense of may. It therefore seems logical for grammatical sticklers to argue that
if youre talking about a possible situation in the present or the future, you should always use the present
tense, may:
If youre feeling queasy, you may eat less and lose weight.
And, equally, if youre referring to something which could have been the case in the past, the past
tense, might, is said (by the grammatically orthodox) to be correct:
For all we know, she might have been undergoing counselling.
However, people dont often make this distinction in todays English, and its generally acceptable to use
either may and might to talk about the present/future or the past:

Present or future event

She thinks she may be going crazy.

She thinks she might be going crazy.

Past event

I might have forgotten to mention it at the time.

I may have forgotten to mention it at the time.

Distinctions between may and might

So the general rule is that may and might are usually interchangeable when talking about possible
situations. However, there are a few differences in usage between may andmight and its useful,
especially if youre writing for school, college, or work, to know when each is more appropriate.
1. May have versus might have
If you dont know the truth about a possible past situation at the time of speaking or writing, you can
use may have or might have:
I think that comment may have offended some people.
I think that comment might have offended some people.
If youre referring to a possibility in the past but you know that it didnt actually happen, its preferable to
use might have:

 Rose assured us that she was well, but she might have been badly hurt.
X Rose assured us that she was well, but she may have been badly hurt.
2. Degrees of possibility
Some authorities on English usage state that its better to use may when you think the chances of
something being the case are likely and to use might when it is unlikely (though in practice, this distinction
isnt always clear-cut):
They may visit Ireland in the near future.
[The speaker believes that theres a fairly good chance that they may go to Ireland]
The woman looked as if she might have been in her late 40s.
[The speaker wasnt very sure about the womans age, but made a tentative guess]
However, its preferable to use might rather than may if youre talking about a hypothetical or conditional
scenario:
If I were Dutch I might see immigration differently.
[Im not Dutch, Im an American talking about a theoretical situation]
If you go to bed earlier, you might feel better tomorrow.
[I think that perhaps you would feel better if you went to bed earlier]
3. Reported speech
You should change may into might when reporting past direct speech (what someone has said):
I may go out of business. [her actual words]
She said she might go out of business. [reported speech]
4. To show annoyance
If you want to express annoyance or criticism because someone could or should have done something
that they* didnt do, you should always use might rather than may:
You might have told me that she wouldnt be in today!
X You may have told me that she wouldnt be in today!
Youd think they might be able to understand each others point of view a bit more.
X Youd think they may be able to understand each others point of view a bit more.
5. Polite requests and suggestions
When politely or formally making a request, asking for information, or making a suggestion, might is
regarded as preferable to may:
Dont you think you might be a little old for him?
Might I ask the Court to glance briefly at the judgment of Sir Harry Gibbs?
6. Expressing a wish or hope
If you want to express a wish or hope, then may is always the correct word to use:

 May you both be very happy.

X Might you both be very happy.
7. Asking for and giving permission
When politely asking for permission to do something, its acceptable to use may ormight, but
nowadays might is regarded as very formal. May is considered more polite than the most typical way of
asking permission in English, using can:
May I borrow your pen? [polite] Might I borrow your pen? [polite and very formal]Can I borrow your
pen? [less polite; considered by some to be incorrect usage]
When giving (or refusing) permission, only may and can are acceptable:
Yes, you may (borrow my pen). [polite] Yes, you can (borrow my pen). [less polite] X Yes,
you might (borrow my pen).
No, you may not (borrow my pen). [polite] No, you cant (borrow my pen).[less polite] X No,
you might not (borrow my pen).
*I know the singular use of they and their causes some of you to wince, but please read my earlier
post on the subject before commenting!

Can or could?
Like may and might, can and could cause a lot of confusion.
Understanding how all the modal verbs are used is vital to speaking and writing English effectively and
idiomatically, so lets explore the meanings and uses of can and could. Given that these are quite complex
verbs, Id like to focus on explaining some key points (otherwise this post would be verging on a book
chapter, lengthwise). If youre interested in exploring other issues, I recommend consulting a reference
book, such as Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, which is written for learners of English but which
is also useful for native English speakers who dont have specialist grammatical knowledge.

Can and could

The main ways in which the verb can is used are given below. In some cases, couldfunctions as the past
tense of can, but there are some important usage differences between the two.
1.) Can is used to say that someone or something is able to do something, either now, or as a
natural characteristic, as a continuing skill, as something learnt:
After five operations, today he can walk and run.
A sea snake can live its whole life without ever touching land.
Can you speak Greek?

We tend to use could as the past tense of can to talk about ability in the past:
I could hear Beth sniggering and cringed in embarrassment.
Mozart could play the piano blindfolded.
By the 1970s, jumbo jets could fly almost anywhere non-stop.

2.) When talking about what is possible in a given situation, or about an opportunity that is open
to someone, use can or be able to:
By joining a club or gym, you can meet so many people.
Parents can save money by booking their holiday outside the peak season.
I can go to London tomorrow as Ive got the day off.

We use could to talk about less definite aspects of possibility or suggested options, either now or
in the future:
We could go for a walk now and then have dinner.
There could be a storm later.
She could be in line for a top government job.
It would be acceptable to use can in the first example, where a suggestion is being discussed (We can go
for a walk now), but this would make the suggestion or option more definite. Its not idiomatic English to
use can in the second and third examples though, which refer to a hypothetical future situation which,
although possible, may well not happen:
X There can be a storm later.
X She can be in line for a top government job.

[Its also possible to use may and might here, rather than could.]

We use could have to refer to something that was an option or generally possible in the past but
didnt happen:
She never stopped daydreaming about the life she could have lived in Greece.
3.) Can is used to talk about being allowed to do something now or in general:
Resorts can only be built on deserted islands, and must have their own generators.
You can have an hour for lunch, except on Fridays.

If youre referring to a general past situation when something was allowed, use could:
The Americans were under instructions that no-one could smoke indoors.
But if something was only permitted on a particular past occasion, it is more common to use a different
wording rather than could, for example:

I was allowed to leave work early today as I had to go to the dentist.

X I could leave work early today as I had to go to the dentist.

See the section on Can and could versus may and might below with regard to asking for
permission, making requests, etc.

Could
So far, weve seen that could is often used as the past tense of can. Other important meanings and uses
include the following.

Use could (not can) to refer to conditional situations, in which something has to happen or be the
case in order for someone to be able to do something or for something else to occur:
We could buy a new sofa if we stop eating takeaway meals every night.

People often use could (never can) to talk about completely unrealistic situations, so as to
deliberately exaggerate how theyre feeling at a particular time:
Im so angry, I could murder her.
X Im so angry, I can murder her.
To refer to a past unrealistic situation or strong inclination, use could have:
She was so thirsty, she could have drunk a gallon of water.
He irritated me so much that I could have screamed.

Could have is also used (in a similar way to might) to show annoyance when you think someone
should have done something, but they didnt:
You could have told me that she wouldnt be at work today!

Can or could versus may or might

This section provides more information on some points outlined in the may and might post, concentrating
on the way these verbs are used to make offers and requests and to ask for and give permission.
1.) Requests and offers

When making a request for something, the most usual way to do this in everyday English is to
use can or could:
Can I have two coffees please?
Could I have two coffees please? [more polite than can]
Although can and could are perfectly acceptable, some people prefer to use may in such cases, as its
regarded as more polite and more formal:
May I have two coffees please?
Nowadays, using might to make requests is generally reserved for very formal situations and to make the
request sound more like a polite suggestion than a firm instruction:
Might I ask the Court to glance briefly at the judgment of Sir Harry Gibbs?

When making an offer, can is the most frequent way of doing this in everyday English;could is
used when we want the offer to sound more tentative; may is more formal and more polite:
Can I get you another drink?
Could I help you in any way?
May I get you another drink?
2.) Asking for and giving/refusing permission

The most typical way of asking for permission in todays English is to use can, or if you want to
sound more polite, could:
Can I borrow your pen?

Could I borrow your pen?

Although this is part of standard English, many people believe that can and could are incorrect within the
context of permission and should be reserved for talking only about ability and possibility, and thus it is
advisable to use may in more formal writing and speaking (might is regarded as very formal):

May I borrow your pen? [polite, formal]

Might I borrow your pen? [rare, polite, very formal]

When giving (or refusing) permission, only can (or cant) and may (or may not) are
acceptable, can being subject to the same caveats as when asking permission to do something:
Yes, you can (borrow my pen) [everyday English, considered incorrect by some]
Yes, you may (borrow my pen). [more polite/formal]
X Yes, you could (borrow my pen).
X Yes, you might (borrow my pen).

No, you cant (borrow my pen). [everyday English, considered incorrect by some]

No, you may not (borrow my pen). [more polite/formal]

X No, you could not (borrow my pen).

X No, you might not (borrow my pen).
Incidentally, can, could, and might would be acceptable answers if you wanted to express possibility or
conditionality rather than give permission. For example: yes, you could borrow my pen would imply that
yes, if I had a pen, it would be possible for you to borrow it.
Thats all for now: I hope this has clarified some aspects of can and could. More on modals in future
blogs!

The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do not
necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.