will/shall

[Herb Stahlke]

I think I'd probably say "d'ya wanna go" instead of "shall we
leave", unless I was being posh.

Herb

>>> laurence.horn at YALE.EDU 01/24/01 09:25PM >>>
At 9:52 AM -0500 1/25/01, David Bergdahl wrote:
>As a 60-yr old American I can attest that no one in my
generation or
>younger uses 'shall' for any purpose whatsoever except to sound
posh:
>"will" or "gonna" ~ "going to" or BE + V+ing is all the future
we need
>in informal usage.
>
>-- db
>____________________________________________________________________
Even in suggestions with interrogative syntax, where it doesn't
alternate with "will"?

Shall we leave?
#Will we leave?  [OK, but not as a suggestion]

Of course, "Let's leave" is another possibility, but it's more
definitive; the "shall" interrogative really does ask for
confirmation.  I also say, and hear, the elliptical "Shall we?",
with
the action recoverable from context.  I agree that "shall" in
declaratives sounds archaic, posh, or British (if these are
distinct), but "shall" in 1st person interrogatives is alive and
not
entirely unwell.

larry