Page 109 - Basic English Usage

109 136

136 future: shall/will (predictions)

1 Forms

| shali/will
you will
he/she/it will + infinitive without to
we shali/will
they will
questions: shall/will |; will you; will he/she/it, etc
negatives: / will/shall not; you will not, etc
contractions: /'i/, you'll, he'll etc; shan't, won't.

In modern English, / shal! and ! will, we shall and we will are used with
the same meaning to talk about the future. We prefer / wil/in promises
and threats, and shail /in offers: see 137.

Meaning
We say that things will happen when they are not already planned or
obviously on the way.
Who do you think will win on Saturday?
Tomorrow will be warm, with some cloud in the afternoon.
One day | shall/ wilV/PII be rich.
Present tenses and shall/will: a comparison
When | say that something is happening, or is going to happen in the
future, | probably have outside evidence for what | say — for example |
can show you a page in a diary, black’clouds in the sky, a person who
Is going to fall.
When | say that something will happen, | do not have outside evidence
to show you. | am telling you what | know, or believe, or have calculated,
and | am asking you to believe what | say. Compare:

He's not very good.
He'll fail.

| reckon it’ll cost about The builder's just sent his estimate.
£7,000 to repair the roof. It’s going to cost £9,000 to repair the roof.