3.6 The Future: will / shall, questions

To make questions with ‘will’, use:

 

Will + subject + base form of the verb without ‘to’:

 

Singular Plural
Will I be fine?

Will you be fine?

Will he/she/it be fine?

Will we be fine?

Will you be fine?

Will they be fine?

 

Patrick finally dared to say: “Will you marry me, Cindy?”

 

This cake looks very small. Will it be enough for all of us?

 

Shall’ is normally used instead of ‘will’ when asking for a decision or making polite offers or suggestions.

 

We form questions with ‘shall’ like this:

(question word) + shall + I/we + the base form of the verb:

 

Singular Plural
(Whom) Shall I visit?

(Whom) Shall you visit?

(Whom) Shall he/she/it visit?

(Whom) Shall we visit?

(Whom) Shall you visit?

(Whom) Shall they visit?

 

When shall I meet you?

What film shall we see?

 

Shall we have a cup of tea?

That’s a good idea.

 

You look tired. Shall I drive?

 

Note: ‘shall’ is only used with ‘I’ or ‘we’ and mostly in British English.