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Shall and will. Shall. and. will. Shall and will are two of the English modal verbs. They have various uses, including the expression of propositions about the future, in what is usually referred to as the future tense of English. Historically, prescriptive grammar stated that, when expressing pure futurity (without any additional meaning such ...
The English modal auxiliary verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality, properties such as possibility and obligation. [a] They can most easily be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participles or plain forms [b]) and by their lack of the ending ‑(e)s for the third-person singular.
you’dn’t’ve. you would not have / you wouldn’t have. you’ll. you shall / you will. you’re. you are. you’ve. you have. ^ Ain’t is used colloquially by some speakers as a substitute for a number of contractions, but is considered incorrect by others.
The first English grammar, Bref Grammar for English by William Bullokar, published in 1586, does not use the term "auxiliary" but says: All other verbs are called verbs-neuters-un-perfect because they require the infinitive mood of another verb to express their signification of meaning perfectly: and be these, may, can, might or mought, could, would, should, must, ought, and sometimes, will ...
Modal verb. A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a likelihood, ability, permission, request, suggestion, order, obligation, necessity, possibility. Modal verbs generally accompany the base (infinitive) form of another verb having semantic content. [1] In English, the modal verbs commonly used are can ...
Modality (semantics) In linguistics and philosophy, modality refers to the ways language can express various relationships to reality or truth. For instance, a modal expression may convey that something is likely, desirable, or permissible. Quintessential modal expressions include modal auxiliaries such as "could", "should", or "must"; modal ...
The King's English. The King's English is a book on English usage and grammar. It was written by the brothers Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler and published in 1906; [1] it thus predates by twenty years Modern English Usage, which was written by Henry alone after Francis's death in 1918. The King's English is less like a dictionary ...
Shall is regarded as being a modal verb which can only be used with I and We. However, by analysing the Corpus of the English language we can conclude it is used with other persons as well. For instance, in the lyrics to the song Moonchild, by Iron Maiden, shall is used with you (you shall be damned), conveying the meaning of a threat.