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'shall' and 'will'

Is there any difference at all between these two sentences?

What will we talk about?

What shall we talk about?

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marked as duplicate by RegDwighт♦ Apr 1 '11 at 9:49

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2 Answers

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Shall and will are modal verbs indicating the future. Different people use them in different ways, and attempts to distinguish them often end up being more prescriptive than descriptive.

For me, there may be a small distinction between your two examples.

What will we talk about?

may mean that I am asking you for your prediction of what is going to be talked about.

What shall we talk about?

may mean that I am inviting you to suggest a topic of conversation.

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While 'shall' and 'will' mean different things to me, I agree with your point. We have long since lost any meaningful difference between 'shall' and 'will'. – J D OConal Apr 1 '11 at 7:31
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Yes, there is a difference.

  • Shall predicts future tense and the work that is not sure (meant that I'm not sure that it is going to happen in future).

  • Will predicts future tense and the work that will definitely going to happen.

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