I shall be 17

[Mark A. Mandel]

Jim Walker <Jim.Walker at UNIV-LYON2.FR> writes:

>>>>>
Would any of you out there share this judgement, that

I SHALL be 17 next month

is a definite no-no?
<<<<<

Ugh! -- as far as US English is concerned.

To me (USA, born 1948) it sounds definitely English. That is, I can't think
of it without hearing it in some British accent. In US speech it is indeed,
imho, a definite no-no. Outside of formal writing, including I think
certain legal usages, "shall" is dead west of the Pond.

I'm assuming that you uppercased "shall" only to highlight the word you
were asking about, not to indicate stress. Even with stress, though, it's
unnatural in AmE.

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com