Editing Shall and will (section)

== Questions ==
In questions, the traditional prescriptive usage is that the auxiliary used should be the one expected in the answer. Hence in enquiring factually about the future, one could ask: "Shall you accompany me?" (to accord with the expected answer "I shall", since the rule prescribes ''shall'' as the uncolored future marker in the first person). To use ''will'' instead would turn the question into a request. In practice, however, ''shall'' is almost never used in questions of this type. To mark a factual question as distinct from a request, the [[going-to future|''going-to'' future]] (or just the present tense) can be used: "Are you going to accompany me?" (or "Are you accompanying me?").

The chief use of ''shall'' in questions is with a [[grammatical person|first person]] subject (''I'' or ''we''), to make offers and suggestions, or request suggestions or instructions:
* Shall I open a window?
* Shall we dance?
* Where shall we go today?
* What shall I do next?
This is common in the UK and other parts of the English-speaking world; it is also found in the United States, but there ''should'' is often a less marked alternative. Normally the use of ''will'' in such questions would change the meaning to a simple request for information: "Shall I play goalkeeper?" is an offer or suggestion, while "Will I play goalkeeper?" is just a question about the expected future situation.

The above meaning of ''shall'' is generally confined to [[direct question]]s with a first person subject. In the case of a [[indirect question|reported question]] (even if not reported in the past tense), ''shall'' is likely to be replaced by ''should'' or another modal verb such as ''might'': "She is asking if she should open a window"; "He asked if they might dance."

The auxiliary ''will'' can therefore be used in questions either simply to enquire about what is expected to occur in the future, or (especially with the second person subject ''you'') to make a request:
* Where will tomorrow's match be played? (factual enquiry)
* Will the new director do a good job? (enquiry for opinion)
* Will I put on the radio? (enquiry for confirmation to act)
* Will you marry me? (request)