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Joe2012 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Regarding diffrence and usage of shall and will.

Sentence: " Apology I could not reply you yesterday, electricity had gone. As per your wish I shall/will reply to you through mail."

My question: Which modal verb "will" or "shall" would be appropriate grammatically in the sentence ? And what is the diffrence between these two modal verbs "shall" and "will" ? Please tell with indigenous examples.

Thanks and regards
  

Top answer

"Sorry I could not reply to you yesterday; we had no electricity. ". It is possible to use "shall" as an alternative to "will" when making future-tense statements ("I shall write to you"), and in emphatic statements about things that must (or mustn't) happen ("You shall not enter"), but this can sound rather formal and stilted, even in written English.

— Mr Wordy

  • "Sorry I could not reply to you yesterday; we had no electricity.
  • ".
  • It is possible to use "shall" as an alternative to "will" when making future-tense statements ("I shall write to you"), and in emphatic statements about things that must (or mustn't) happen ("You shall not enter"), but this can sound rather formal and stilted, even in written English.
  • Unless you are fluent in the language it is probably safest to stick to "will" in these cases.
  • I believe that in AmE "shall" is used even less than in BrE.
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2 Answers
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"Sorry I could not reply to you yesterday; we had no electricity. As per your request, I will reply to you by post."

(However, if this is your reply -- or the start of it -- it would be better to say "I am replying...")

In everyday British English, "shall" is not used a great deal, except in questions like "Shall we go now?". It is possible to use "shall" as an alternativ
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Shall is rarely used, indeed, except as a question, as you say.

I have some Indian colleagues. They use shall.
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