Editing Shall and will (section)

===Prescriptivist distinction===
{{anchor|The prescriptivist distinction}} <!-- linked at least from Comparison of American and British English#Verbal auxiliaries]]-->

According to ''[[Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage]]'',<ref>''Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', Merriam-Webster, 1989, {{ISBN|0-87779-132-5}}</ref> the distinction between ''shall'' and ''will'' as future markers arose from the practice of [[Latin]] teaching in English schools in the 14th century. It was customary to use ''will'' to translate the Latin ''velle'' (meaning to wish, want or intend); this left ''shall'' (which had no other equivalent in Latin) to translate the Latin [[future tense]]. This practice kept ''shall'' alive in the role of future marker; it is used consistently as such in the Middle English [[Wycliffe's Bible]]. However, in the common language it was ''will'' that was becoming predominant in that role. [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]] normally uses ''will'' to indicate the future, regardless of [[grammatical person]].

An influential proponent of the prescriptive rule that ''shall'' is to be used as the usual future marker in the first person was [[John Wallis]]. In ''Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae'' (1653) he wrote: "The rule is [...] to express a future event without emotional overtones, one should say I shall, we shall, but you/he/she/they will; conversely, for emphasis, willfulness, or insistence, one should say I/we will, but you/he/she/they shall".

[[Henry Watson Fowler]] wrote in his book ''The King's English'' (1906), regarding the rules for using ''shall'' vs. ''will'', the comment "the idiomatic use, while it comes by nature to southern Englishmen ... is so complicated that those who are not to the manner born can hardly acquire it". The ''Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage'', [[Oxford University Press|OUP]], 2002, says of the rule for the use of ''shall'' and ''will'': "it is unlikely that this rule has ever had any consistent basis of authority in actual usage, and many examples of [British] English in print disregard it".

Nonetheless, even among speakers (the majority) who do not follow the rule about using ''shall'' as the unmarked form in the first person, there is still a tendency to use ''shall'' and ''will'' to express different shades of meaning (reflecting aspects of their original [[Old English language|Old English]] senses). Thus ''shall'' is used with the meaning of obligation, and ''will'' with the meaning of desire or intention.

An illustration of the supposed contrast between ''shall'' and ''will'' (when the prescriptive rule is adhered to) appeared in the 19th century,<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=The Virginia University Magazine | year=1871 | page=367 | title=Reade and Collins | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9JKAAAAYAAJ&q=%E2%80%9CI+will+drown,+no+one+shall+save+me!%E2%80%9D)&pg=PA367 }}</ref> and has been repeated in the 20th century<ref>{{cite book | title=How to write and speak effective English: a modern guide to good form | publisher=[[World Syndicate Publishing|The World Syndicate Publishing Company]] | year=1938 | last=Allen  | first=Edward Frank | url=https://archive.org/details/howtowritespeakealle00alle| url-access=registration | quote="I will drown, no one shall save me!"). }}</ref> and in the 21st:<ref>{{cite book | first=Ian | last=Graham | title=Requirements modelling and specification for service oriented architecture | year=2008 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xKscpMcyZHIC&q=%E2%80%9CI+will+drown%2C+no+one+shall+save+me%21%E2%80%9D%29&pg=PA72 | page=/79| publisher=Wiley | isbn=9780470712320 }}</ref>
* I shall drown; no one will save me! (expresses the expectation of drowning, simple expression of future occurrence)
* I will drown; no one shall save me! (expresses suicidal intent: first-person ''will'' for desire, third-person ''shall'' for command)
An example of this distinction in writing occurs in [[Henry James]]'s 1893 short story ''[[The Middle Years]]'':
:"Don't you know?—I want to what they call 'live.'"
:The young man, for good-by, had taken his hand, which closed with a certain force. They looked at each other hard a moment. "You ''will'' live," said Dr. Hugh.
:"Don't be superficial. It's too serious!"
:"You ''shall'' live!" Dencombe's visitor declared, turning pale.
:"Ah, that's better!" And as he retired the invalid, with a troubled laugh, sank gratefully back.<ref name="James 1893">{{cite book | author = Henry James | title = The Middle Years | url = https://archive.org/details/themiddleyears32649gut <!-- unsupported parameter |book-title = Terminations --> | author-link = Henry James }}</ref>

A more popular illustration of the use of "shall" with the second person to express determination occurs in the oft-quoted words the [[fairy godmother]] traditionally says to [[Cinderella]] in British versions of the well-known fairy tale: "You ''shall'' go to the ball, Cinderella!"

Another popular illustration is in the dramatic scene from ''[[The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' when [[Gandalf]] checks the [[Balrog]]'s advance with magisterial censure, "You shall not pass!"

The use of ''shall'' as the usual future marker{{dubious|date=February 2021}} in the first person nevertheless persists in some more formal or elevated [[register (sociolinguistics)|register]]s of English. An example is provided by the famous [[We shall fight on the beaches|speech of Winston Churchill]]: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.'"