432 



The grammatical article printed below is mentioned at 

 p. 340, in a letter to Mr. Roscoe. 



OBSERVATIONS ON SHALL AND WILL. 



To the Editor of the Athenceum. 

 Sir, Norwich, Aug. 5, 1807. 



The various writers on English grammar have scarcely 

 explained with sufficient precision the proper use of the 

 verbs shall and will, with the preterites should and would. 

 Many persons consider the just application of these verbs 

 as a sort of shibboleth, a test of a true-born Englishman, 

 for which no rule can be given, and which no foreigners, 

 not even our fellow-subjects of Scotland and Ireland, can 

 ever learn. The latter is undeniable ; and it is equally 

 true that an Englishman, however uneducated, will never, 

 except corrupted by an intercourse with strangers, com- 

 mit an error in this respect. Nevertheless, before we 

 indulge in triumph over other people, it becomes us to 

 give, if possible, a reason for our own conduct ; nor ought 

 any reproach to fall on those who, in learning a language, 

 err on a point concerning which no rule can be given. 



Allow me therefore to suggest that shall and will are 

 two distinct verbs, which interchange their meanings in the 

 different persons. Shall and should express, in the first 

 person, simple futurity, but in the second and third per- 

 sons they imply a command or decision of the speaker. 

 On the contrary, will and would in the first person im- 

 ply the same command or decision, while in the second 

 and third they express only simple futurity. There is, 

 however, a third verb, will, in every one of the three per- 

 sons, which expresses the decision of the person spoken 

 of. 



This is best understood by a table of each verb and 

 its tenses. 



