GrahamCresswell
  Junior Editor

The future tense of the verb "to be" has regional variations that are quite important for understanding.
In English English, the first person is "shall" - " I shall do this", " we shall do that". And, more importantly in the interrogative - "Shall I do this?", Shall we do that?, which indicate asking permission or agreement. In Celtic English, the first person future is "will" - "I will do this", "we will do that". In the Celtic interrogative - "will I do this?", "will we do that?", also indicate a suggestion but can be baffling to English English speakers who will understand it as a question of fact and answer "I don't know, will you?". But it's more complicated than that because, in official English, "shall" is used in the second and third person to indicate obligation, requirement or determination. "You shall go to the ball, don't let anyone stop you". "The applicant shall complete the form in duplicate". And in conversational English English the first person "will" indicates determination. "I will go to the ball, don't try to stop me".

In conversational English of all regions you can avoid all this in the indicative by using the contraction - "I'll do this", "we'll do this". But in the interrogative it's useful to be aware of the differences. more »