Polyglot Dictionary

shall

/ʃæl/

modal verb B1
V Register Formal Era Dated Frequency Common Domain General Tone Neutral

Forms

negative
shall not / shan't

Meaning

  1. sugerencia, ofrecimiento (shall I/we...?)

    Mostly used in questions with "I" or "we" to make a suggestion or polite offer. More common in British English than American English.

    • Shall we dance?

      ¿Bailamos?

  2. futuro formal (I/we shall)

    A formal, old-fashioned equivalent of "will", used mainly with "I" and "we" in formal or literary English.

Práctica

1 ¿Qué significa shall?

2 Completa el espacio en blanco: ___ we dance?

3 ¿Qué gráfico de características corresponde a shall?

Usage notes

Outside of fixed polite questions ("Shall we...?", "Shall I...?"), "shall" sounds formal or old-fashioned in everyday speech — "will" has mostly replaced it, especially in American English.

verbmodal-verbirregularcore-vocabularygrammar

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