WILL vs. SHALL - What's the Difference? - Basic English Grammar

‘Will’ and ‘shall’ are two of the most challenging words in

English, even for native speakers.

But in this lesson, I will show you how to use

these two words correctly, and avoid making common

mistakes with them.

So let’s begin.

Welcome back.

Before we start, as always, if you have

any questions at all, just ask me in the comments

section below, and I will talk to you there.

Now, in this lesson, I will teach you

the two important rules for using ‘will’ and ‘shall’

correctly, and we will discuss how to use them in

questions to make requests, offers, and suggestions.

There is a final quiz at the end to test your

understanding.

OK, so how do you use ‘will’ and ‘shall’ correctly?

Well, here’s the short answer.

In modern English, ‘shall’ has

become uncommon.

That means, most people just don’t use

‘shall’.

In fact, in American English, ‘shall’ is very

rarely used – it’s mainly found in some types of

questions, but we shall discuss them later in this

lesson.

So for now, if you are not sure about the rules,

just use ‘will’.

It’s perfectly OK to use ‘will’ in

all statements – no problem.

But I’m sure you are watching this video because you want

to know the proper grammatical rules for ‘will’

and ‘shall’, so let’s talk about those now.

There are two sets of rules for using ‘will’ and ‘shall’.

I call these the ‘normal future’ and the ‘strong

future’.

Let’s talk about the normal future first.

This is when we express a plan, an

expectation, or a prediction.

The grammar rule says that if the subject of the sentence

is ‘I’ or ‘We’, then ‘shall’ should be used.

Here are some examples: “I shall wait for

you at the train station.”

and “We shall not go to the museum if we don’t have

time.”

You see here that we’re using ‘shall’ because

the subjects are ‘I’ and ‘We’.

In English, ‘I’ and ‘We’ are known as the first

person.

If the subject is the second person – ‘You’ or the third

person – ‘He’, ‘She’, ‘It’, ‘They’ etc. then ‘will’

should be used.

Here are some examples: “You will find the

flash drive in the locker.”, “The match will not take

place on October 7th.”

Instead of ‘The match’, you can also say ‘It will not

take place’.

And finally, “All employees will receive

fire safety training every two years.”

Here, you can say ‘They’ instead of ‘All

employees.’

Now these sentences on the screen are called the normal

future or plain future because they’re normal

sentences, and there’s no emotion attached to them.

But sometimes, we want to express

a strong emotion about the future – it could be a

promise, a command, determination or duty.

We call this the strong future.

The grammar rule is that for the strong future, we reverse

‘will’ and ‘shall’.

So now, we’re going to use ‘will’

with the first person: ‘I’ and ‘We’, and ‘shall’ with

the second and third person.

Take this sentence for example: “I will get an A on

this exam.

I promise!”

Compare this to the previous sentence: “I shall wait for

you at the train station.”

There’s no emotion there – it’s just a simple future

arrangement.

But when I say “I will get an A on this

exam” you can tell that I’m showing strong determination.

So this is the strong future and we use ‘will’.

Here’s another example: “We will

not tolerate smoking inside the building!”

You see that this is a warning, and it’s a

strong warning, so we use ‘will’.

These are first-person subjects.

With second- and third-person subjects we use

‘shall’.

For example, “You shall finish your homework

before you go out to play.”

What type of sentence is this?

It’s a command or order.

You can imagine a mother saying this to her

child.

The next example is “The wedding shall not take

place!”

Compare this to the previous sentence: “The match

will not take place on October 7th.”

Why?

Maybe because of weather conditions

or other scheduling problems.

But the strong future sentence is very different.

When I say “The wedding shall not take place.”

I’m saying I won’t allow the wedding to

take place.

I will stop the wedding.

Of course, I have no reason to stop anybody’s

wedding but you can see how there is a lot of emotion or

feeling in this sentence.

Here’s one last example: “All employees shall wear

safety gloves when handling hazardous chemicals.”

This is a rule – and it’s a strict

rule that must be obeyed by all employees.

That’s why use ‘shall’.

Now, for all pronouns, that is ‘I’, ‘You’,

‘We’, ‘They’, ‘He’, ‘She’, and ‘It’, you can shorten

both ‘will’ and ‘shall’ and say “I’ll”, “You’ll”, “We’ll”

etc.

‘Will not’ shortens to “won’t”.

‘Shall not’ can be shortened to “shan’t” but

that form is not really used in modern English.

OK let’s now move on and talk about

using ‘will’ and ‘shall’ in questions.

There are three types of questions that are important

for us in this lesson.

Have a look at these examples.

What’s the difference between them?

Well, the first – “Can you get me a glass of water?”

is a request.

That is, I want you to do something for me.

The second – “Can I get you a drink?” is an offer – I’m

offering to do something for you.

And the third – “Why don’t we have pizza tonight?”

is a suggestion.

These are all perfectly natural

sentences.

But you can also make these sentences using

‘will’ or ‘shall’.

The rule is that for requests, you need to use

‘will’.

You have to say “Will you get me a glass of water?”

You cannot say “Shall you get me a glass of water?”

To make offers or suggestions, you

need to use ‘shall’.

So “Shall I get you a drink?” is

correct, but “Will I get you a drink?” is wrong.

In the same way, “Shall we have

pizza tonight?”

is correct, but “Will we have pizza

tonight?”

is wrong.

Remember, I told you in the beginning that if you are

confused between ‘will’ and ‘shall’, you can just use

‘will’ in statements?

That is true, but in questions, for

offers and suggestions, you can never use ‘will’.

Keep that in mind.

Alright, if you’re ready, let’s now do a

quiz to see if you can use ‘will’ and ‘shall’ correctly.

On the screen, there are ten sentences.

In each sentence, I want you to choose the

correct word.

Use the conjugation chart to decide

your answers.

Stop the video now, work out your answers,

then play the video again and check.

Alright, let’s discuss the answers.

Number one is “I shall bring my kids along

when I come next time.”

This is just the normal future, so

‘shall’ is correct.

Number two – “You will receive an

email confirmation with your order details within 24

hours.”

Number three – “Shall I open the window?”

This is an offer, so we use ‘shall’.

Number four – “The tenant shall pay the rent to the

landlord on or before the fifth day of the month.”

We use ‘shall’ because this is

the strong future – it’s a very strict clause in a

contract.

And the subject is in the third person – ‘The

tenant’.

‘Tenant’ means someone who rents a home or

an office.

And the landlord is the owner of the place.

This kind of complicated sentence using ‘shall’ is

very common in contracts and other legal documents.

Alright, number five is “My parents will be staying with

us for a couple of weeks.”

This sentence expresses a future arrangement, so it’s

just the regular future.

Number six – “You shall not stay up after 10.

Do you understand?”

‘Stay up’ means to stay awake.

So this sounds like a parent telling his or

her child to go to bed before 10 o’ clock.

It’s a command, so it’s the strong future,

and we use ‘shall’ for the second person – ‘you’.

Number seven – “Will you please be quiet for a

moment?”

This is a request and for requests, we use

‘will’.

Number eight – “I will never forget all the

help you gave me.”

This is a strong, emotional statement.

It’s a promise.

For that reason, we use ‘will’ with

the first person – ‘I’.

Number nine is also the strong future – “We will

ensure that every customer walks away satisfied.”

It shows determination, and is

an expression of duty.

So ‘will’ is correct here.

And number ten – “Shall we go to

the movies?”

We use ‘shall’ because it’s a suggestion.

Alright, how many answers did you get right?

Let me know in the comments section below.

I’d like to say thanks to Yoel Armas Macías.

There was an error in my old lesson on

‘will’ and ‘shall’ where I mistakenly clubbed the

second-person ‘you’ together with the first-person, and

Yoel very kindly pointed it out – that error has been

corrected in this lesson, so thank you, Yoel.

OK, click the subscribe button to get

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learning.