Shall

Shall: forms

Affirmative form

Shall comes first in the verb phrase (after the subject and before another verb). We use it mostly with I and we:

I shall post it to you tomorrow.

Shall cannot be used with another modal verb:

I shall have to be at the airport by 5 pm.

Not: I shall must be … or I must shall be …

Shall can be followed by have to, need to and be able to:

We shall have to tell him what happened.

The good news is I shall be able to join you at your meeting next week.

Negative form

The negative form of shall is shan’t. We don’t use don’t, doesn’t, didn’t with shall:

I shan’t be home tomorrow night.

We shan’t know the result of the tests till Tuesday.

We can use the full form shall not in formal contexts or when we want to emphasis something:

[a public notice in a restaurant]

The management shall not be responsible for damage to personal property.

We don’t often use the negative form.

Question form

The subject and shall change position to form questions.

Warning:

We don’t use do, does, did. The question form, with I and we, is the most common use of shall:

Shall I come round to the office?

Not: Do I shall come round to the office?

We use shall in question tags:

I’ll phone you later, shall I?

Shall: uses

Offers, suggestions and advice

We use shallI and shall we to make offers and suggestions, and to ask for advice.

offer	Shall I carry your bag?
suggestion	Shall I call again on Thursday?
seeking advice	What shallwe do with this?

Predictions and intentions

We use shall instead of will with I and we in rather formal contexts to make predictions and to talk about intentions or decisions. It is much less common than will.

Compare

formal	less formal
We shall remember this day forever.	We will remember this day forever.

Warning:

We use shall only with the first person pronouns I and we to make predictions or express intentions:

The new business cards will be ready at the end of the month.

Not: The new business cards shall be ready at the end of the month.

Commands

Warning:

In very formal contexts, we use shall to give commands:

[public notice]

This door shall be kept closed at all times.

Shall: typical error

We use should, not shall, for advice and suggestions:

In my opinion, we should book another hotel.

Not: In my opinion, we shall book another hotel.