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Are "shall" and "ought to" out of date n

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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms

Difference between choose and option? | Take the stations

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Sat Apr 01, 2006 14:03 pm Are "shall" and "ought to" out of date n

are "shall" and "ought to" out of date nowadays?

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Sat Apr 01, 2006 15:38 pm Are "shall" and "ought to" out of da

Anonymous wrote:

are "shall" and "ought to" out of date nowadays?

Shall is quite out of date in North America, except when it is used to mean, "I will absolutely do it, without fail!" You'll occasionally hear, "I will and I shall," which means you want to do something, and you will definitely do it. Even that sounds a bit archaic, however. Otherwise, shall is very seldom used in America, and we use will instead.

I believe that shall is still used very commonly in the UK, and that there it is not strange or out of date at all.

As far as I know, ought to is still completely normal language everywhere in the English-speaking world. We use it every day, alternating it with should. It's said very frequently.

Alan may have further comments from the UK side.

Jamie (K)
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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Difference between choose and option? | Take the stations

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