shall or will? Traditionally shall was used to form the future tense for the first person singular and plural (I /we shall go tomorrow) and to state a firm intention if used with any other personal pronoun (You shall go to the ball; Britons never, never, never shall be slaves). Conversely will formed the future tense for the second and third person (You /they will know soon enough) and expressed a firm intention if used with I or we (I will not put up with this). This distinction has largely died out, with I will or we will being used in informal usage and the general use of the contraction ‘ll, e.g. I'll, we'll. See also note at should