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Vague in that “shall” can be an airily floated aspiration for the future — “I say,” said Jenkins, absent-mindedly knocking out his pipe on a passing child’s head, “I do believe I shall go to the theatre tonight!” — but just as easily can be a stentorian direction to an underling to carry out a binding duty: “You ''shall'' do the dishes, young lady, and you shall do them ''NOW''”.<ref>Real life example.</ref> | Vague in that “shall” can be an airily floated aspiration for the future — “I say,” said Jenkins, absent-mindedly knocking out his pipe on a passing child’s head, “I do believe I shall go to the theatre tonight!” — but just as easily can be a stentorian direction to an underling to carry out a binding duty: “You ''shall'' do the dishes, young lady, and you shall do them ''NOW''”.<ref>Real life example.</ref> | ||
[[Mediocre lawyer|Lawyers]] like the latter formulation, a lot, and spray it around as if they're standing behind a Gatling gun loaded with [[shall]]s<ref>Thank-you, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a hat going round.</ref>. But here's the problem: conjugation. A wilful [[shall]] to me is a stentorian one to you, and vice versa<ref>Authority no less impressive than the [https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/shall-or-will Oxford English Dictionary]:“The traditional rule is that [[shall]] is used with first person pronouns (i.e. [[I]] and we) to form the future tense, while will is used with second and third person forms (i.e. you, he, she, it, they). [...] However, when it comes to expressing a strong determination to do something, the roles are reversed: will is used with the first person, and [[shall]] with the second and third.” </ref>. You can’t just spray your [[shall]]s and [[will]]s around around ''[[will]]y''-nilly. | [[Mediocre lawyer|Lawyers]] like the latter formulation, a lot, and spray it around as if they're standing behind a Gatling gun loaded with [[shall]]s<ref>Thank-you, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a hat going round.</ref>. But here's the problem: [[conjugation]]. A wilful [[shall]] to me is a stentorian one to you, and vice versa<ref>Authority no less impressive than the [https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/shall-or-will Oxford English Dictionary]:“The traditional rule is that [[shall]] is used with first person pronouns (i.e. [[I]] and we) to form the future tense, while will is used with second and third person forms (i.e. you, he, she, it, they). [...] However, when it comes to expressing a strong determination to do something, the roles are reversed: will is used with the first person, and [[shall]] with the second and third.” </ref>. You can’t just spray your [[shall]]s and [[will]]s around around ''[[will]]y''-nilly. | ||
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