Will, shall usage

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rommie

#25957 Fri, 19 Mar 04 04:37 PM

It's commonly used in Britain. I can't answer for America, where the will/shall distinction seems to have been at least partially lost.

The easiest way to think of question forms is that "Shall we?" is a question to which the answer must be either "We shall" or "We shall not". (And similarly, "Will we?" is a question to which the answer must be either "We will" or "We will not".)

So your question is fine, yes.
Rommie

rommie

Joined on Mon, Jan 26 2004

Earth orbit

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mirapence

#26019 Sat, 20 Mar 04 09:11 PM

In America, "shall we?" is also commonly used as a polite question.

Rarely, "will we?" is used, but not in the colloquial form. "Will we kill all the whales at last?" could be one example.

Mirapence

mirapence

Joined on Mon, Mar 8 2004

California, U.S.A

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