Google Books statistics indicate that the use of the expression “if you should” and especially of the expression “if you shall” per unit of text length dramatically and steadily declined since the 1700s, as you can see in this graph. As compared to the 1700s, the former expression is nowadays used about 7 times less … Read more
I was wondering how somebody in the 19th century would have said or written If you are/were my girl/boyfriend, you must never cheat on me I thought it might be something like this If you be my love, you shall never be untrue Halt! Before anyone objects and says that “shall” is reserved for the … Read more
A common translation of the Latin hortative memento mori is “Remember thou shalt die.” I am not interested in a discussion of the Latin, nor of what the expression actually means in English. I am more interested in why English speakers chose the formulation “Remember thou shalt die” over “Remember thou wilt die,” considering the … Read more
I was watching “Titans” S2E5, minute 33 in found a sentence that make me think about the shall usage. “It is you they are looking for. But it is he they shall find.” Besides the sentence has not sense for me, I can’t understand the usage of shall on that situation. Why he don’t use … Read more
