The following tables should be learned and practiced in a large variety of combinations.
Futurity Volition, etc.
I shall We shall I will We will You will You will You shall You shall He will They will He shall They shall
A good example of the misuse of the words is found in the old story of the foreigner who fell into the water and cried out in terror and despair "I _will_ drown, n.o.body _shall_ help me."
In asking questions, for the first person always use _shall_, for the second and third use the auxiliary expected in the answer.
Futurity
Shall I (I shall) Shall we (We shall) Shall you (I shall) Shall you (We shall) Will he (He will) Will they (They will)
Volition, etc.
---- ---- ---- ---- Will you (I will) Will you (We will) Shall he (He shall) Shall he (He shall)
In all other cases, as in subordinate clauses _shall_ is used in all persons to express mere futurity, _will_ to express volition, etc.
In indirect discourse, when the subject of the princ.i.p.al clause is different from the noun clause, the usage is like that in direct statement, for example,
The teacher says that James will win the medal. (futurity),
but when the subject of the princ.i.p.al clause is the same as that of the noun clause, the usage is like that in subordinate clauses,
The teacher says that he shall soon resign. (futurity).
Exceptions. _Will_ is often used in the second person to express an official command.
You will report to the superintendent at once.
_Shall_ is sometimes used in the second and third persons in a prophetic sense.
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
The use of _should_ and _would_ is in general the same as that of _shall_ and _will_ in indirect statement.
Futurity.
I should We would You would You should He would They should
In asking questions use _should_ in the first person to express mere futurity and _would_ to express volition, etc; in the second and third persons use the form that is expected in the answer.
Futurity
Should I (I should) Should we (We should) Should You (I should) Should You (We should) Would he (He would) Would they (They would)
Volition, etc.
Would I (I would) Would we (We would) Would You (You would) Would You (We would) Should he (He should) Should they (They should)
In subordinate clauses _should_ is used in all persons to express futurity, _would_ to express volition, etc.
In indirect discourse the usage is similar to that in direct statement.
The teacher said that John would win the medal.
Exceptions. _Should_ is often used to express moral obligation.
You should be honest under all conditions.
_Would_ is sometimes used to express frequentive action.
He would walk the floor night after night.
Mistakes are often made in the use of compound tenses on account of failure to grasp the meaning of the words used.
I should have liked to have seen you,
is correct grammar but probably not correct statement of fact, as it states a past desire to have done something at a period still further remote, that is to say, "I should have liked (yesterday) to have seen you (day before yesterday)." What is generally meant is either "I should have liked to see you," that is "I (then) wished to see you," or "I should like to have seen you," that is "I (now) wish I had seen you (then)."
Every word has its own value and nearly all our mistakes arise from lack of regard for the exact value of the words to be used.
Where a participial construction is used as the object of a verb, the noun or p.r.o.noun in the object should be in the possessive case and not in the objective. You should not say, "I object to him watching me," but "I object to his watching me."
Care should be taken not to give objects to pa.s.sive verbs. The very common expression "The man was given a chance" is incorrect. It should be "A chance was given to the man."
Care should also be taken to avoid the omission of the prepositions which are needed with certain verbs, for example, "beware the dog,"
"What happened him" should be "beware _of_ the dog," "What happened _to_ him."
On the other hand superfluous prepositions are sometimes used in such phrases as _consider of_, _accept of_ and the like.
Such errors are to be avoided by careful study of the meaning of words and careful observation of the best written and spoken speech.
_p.r.o.nouns_
p.r.o.nouns are subst.i.tutes for nouns. They are labor saving devices. We could say everything which we need to say without them, but at the expense of much repet.i.tion of longer words. A child often says "John wants Henry"s ball" instead of "I want your ball." Constant remembrance of this simple fact, that a p.r.o.noun is only a subst.i.tute for a noun, is really about all that is needed to secure correct usage after the p.r.o.nouns themselves have once become familiar. A construction which appears doubtful can often be decided by subst.i.tuting nouns for p.r.o.nouns and vice versa.
A very common error is the use of the plural possessive p.r.o.nouns with the words _any_, _every_, _each_, _somebody_, _everybody_, and _n.o.body_, all of which are always singular.
We could accomplish this if every one would do their part.
is wrong. It should be