"WILL" AND “SHALL.”

Evening Star, Issue 3917, 13 September 1875, Page 3

"WILL" AND “SHALL.”

(A LIV York Ti me*).

One of the incidental effects of the Merest in orthography which lias of [ate heen occasioned in many parts of ■he e.-untry by “spelling matches,” has heen that of calling a good deal of Mention to etymology and syntax. Many of the common mistakes in tin* use of language have thus been brought to notice. Some of these errors have excited a much smaller proportion of remark than their importance demands. Among this class may l>e mentioned the misplacement of the auxiliaries “ will ” and “ shall ” —an error which Mr [Richard Grant White has labored hard to correct, lb would save us a good deal of time if writers for the Press would read his chapters on the subject. The employment of “ will ” for “shall” in many cases where good usuage requires the letter, is not only a mistake which very often occurs, but one which appears to he increasing in frequency. The use of “ shall ” for “ will ” is far less common ; and, indeed, is so seldom heard that we shall nob stop hero to remark upon it. But the number of persons who habitually say or write “will” in certain connections where the word ought to he “ shall,” and “ would ” where it ought to be “should,” is, even amoi-g well-educated people, very great. Indeed, we doubt whether these is one in live of our college-educated men who does not make this mistake. It is very certain that a great many of them do make it, not only frequently, hut habitually, and that there arc not a few

of the young men who have graduated with high honors at our principle universities who show very plainly that however much Latin and Greek they may have learned, they are, at least in the particular respect of which we are speaking, very deficient in acquaintance with their own language. Perhaps the most marked and noticeable term in which the mistake we have just mentioned is made, occurs in questions asked for the purpose of ascertaining the wishes or commands of others in regard to the questioner’s actions. “ What book will I get for you at the library 1 ” “ Where will I wait for you this afternoon T’ “Doctor, will I take any more of these pills 1” “ Mamma, what dress will I wear to the party V Obvious as the error in these and similiar instances is, it is one which is often heard from persons who would he very much surprised at the suggestion that they ever talked bad gramraer. In fact, there are a good many people who use this form of expression without being aware that they do so. And there are a great number of parents whose children habitually employ it, who have become so much accustomed to the phiaseology that it would take some time to convince them that they use it all. There is, when we consider the matter, perhaps loss reason for surprise that so many people misplace the words “will” and “shall” than that anybody ever learns to use them correctly. There are, it is true, certain rules iu regard to their employment; but these rules are not easily remembered, and besides, they are necessarily expressed in language entirely incomprehensible to great numbers of persons, including, of course, all little children. We particularly commend this subject to the attention of teachers. There is many a school where strict care is taken to correct the smallest mistakes in Latin or French exercises, iu which the habitual employment by the great majority of the pupils of the auxiliary “will” in cases where its use is glaringly incorrect is passed by entirely unnoticed. This may he considered by some people as a small matter ; hut the ability to speak and write the English language properly is not an insignillcenfc branch of education, and no one cun bo said to bo well trained in lids branch who habitually makes the class mistakes of which we have been speaking.