Modal Verbs

Lesson 4: Shall and Should

Lesson: 4 of 10 | Level: 🟠 Intermediate — 🟣 Upper-Intermediate

1. Lesson Overview

Shall and should form one of the most interesting and most instructive pairs in the English modal system. Shall — the senior partner in terms of historical precedence — has retreated significantly in modern British English and survives primarily in a small number of specific and important contexts. Should, its historical past tense counterpart, has developed into one of the most versatile and most frequently used modal verbs in the language — expressing advice, obligation, expectation, logical deduction, formal recommendation, and a range of other meanings that make it indispensable in both spoken and written English.

Together, shall and should cover meanings that range from the most tentative suggestion to the most authoritative formal obligation — and understanding the full range of both verbs, their register, and the contexts in which each is appropriate is essential for confident, accurate use of English at intermediate and advanced level.

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify and apply all the main meanings of shall and should
• Understand when shall is used and when it has been replaced by will in modern English
• Use should correctly across its full range of meanings — advice, obligation, expectation, deduction, and formal recommendation
• Recognise and correct common errors in the use of shall and should

2. Core Content

A. Forming Shall and Should

Shall and should are modal auxiliary verbs. They are followed by the bare infinitive and have the same form for all persons.

Affirmative, negative, and question forms

Note that shan’t — the contracted negative of shall — is used in British English but is rare in American English. Shouldn’t is the standard contracted negative of should and is used in all registers, including formal writing where appropriate.

B. The Main Uses of Shall

1. Future — first person in formal British English

Traditionally, shall was used with the first person (I and we) to express simple future time in formal British English — a convention that is now largely obsolete in everyday speech, where will has replaced it. However, shall retains this use in certain formal and legal contexts.

For example:

We shall present the findings at the international conference in September. I shall submit the final report by the agreed deadline.

In everyday modern British English, will is used instead: We will present the findings / I will submit the report. The shall form in this context now sounds formal, old-fashioned, or literary.

2. Offers and suggestions — first person questions

Shall is used in questions with I and we to make offers and suggestions — asking whether the speaker should do something or whether a course of action is desired. This is one of the most active and widely used functions of shall in modern British English.

For example:

Shall I check the calibration of the instruments before the dive begins? Shall we review the preliminary data before proceeding to the next phase of the survey?

This use cannot be replaced by will — Will I check? and Will we review? are not offers or suggestions but predictions. Shall I and Shall we are the standard forms for this function.

3. Formal obligations and requirements — legal and official documents

Shall is used in formal legal, official, and regulatory documents to impose obligations — expressing what is required or mandated. In this context it carries the force of obligation and is not merely a future marker.

For example:

All researchers shall submit their data to the central archive within thirty days of collection. The expedition team shall follow the established safety protocols at all times during fieldwork in the Antarctic region.

This use of shall is particularly important in legal contracts, treaties, regulations, and institutional policies — where it carries a stronger obligatory force than will or must in formal written contexts.

4. Determination and strong intention — emphatic

Shall is used — particularly in formal and literary English — to express strong determination or firm intention, often with an emphatic or defiant tone.

For example:

We shall not abandon the survey — the scientific importance of these findings demands that we continue. The findings shall be made available to the international scientific community regardless of political pressure to suppress them.

5. Promises and assurances — formal

Shall is used in formal contexts to make promises and assurances — particularly in first person statements of commitment.

For example:

The institute shall provide full financial support for the research programme throughout the agreed three-year period. I shall ensure that all the relevant data is preserved and made available to future researchers.

C. The Main Uses of Should

1. Advice and recommendations

Should is the primary modal verb for giving advice and making recommendations — expressing what the speaker believes is the right, sensible, or appropriate course of action.

For example:

Scientists should establish comprehensive baseline measurements before deep-sea mining operations begin, so that the environmental impact can be accurately assessed. The research team should recalibrate all instruments at the start of each dive to ensure the reliability of the data collected.

2. Obligation — moderate

Should expresses a moderate level of obligation — less strong than must or have to, but more than a mere suggestion. It implies that something is expected, required, or morally appropriate.

For example:

Research findings should be submitted for peer review before they are communicated to the general public or to policymakers. All members of the expedition team should be familiar with the emergency protocols before the vessel departs from port.

3. Expectation — what is probable or expected

Should expresses expectation — the speaker believes something is probable or is the natural expected outcome given what is known.

For example:

The team should have arrived at the research station by now — they departed three days ago and the journey typically takes two. The analysis should be complete by Friday if the laboratory works at its normal capacity throughout the week.

4. Logical deduction — what ought to be true

Should expresses a logical deduction — the speaker’s reasoned conclusion about what is likely to be true based on available evidence. This is the epistemic use of should.

For example:

If the instruments are functioning correctly, the readings should be consistent across all three monitoring stations. Given the current rate of ice loss, the glacier should reach the coastline within the next fifty years under current warming projections.

5. Conditional sentences — third conditional and hypothetical

Should is used in if-clauses — particularly in formal and written English — to express a possible but uncertain future condition, making the condition sound more tentative and less likely than the simple present would imply.

For example:

Should the weather deteriorate beyond safe operating limits, the expedition will return to port immediately. Should further evidence emerge to contradict the current findings, the conclusions will need to be revised accordingly.

This construction — should + subject + bare infinitive — is the formal equivalent of if + subject + should + bare infinitive, and the if is often omitted in formal writing.

6. In reported speech — backshifted from shall

Should is the backshifted form of shall in reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past tense.

For example:

The team leader said that we should proceed with the survey as planned. The committee indicated that the funding should be released within the next two weeks.

7. Formal recommendations in academic and official writing

Should is used in formal academic, scientific, and policy writing to make recommendations — expressing what the writer believes ought to be done, based on the evidence presented.

For example:

Policymakers should establish a comprehensive international regulatory framework for deep-sea mining before extraction operations are permitted to expand further. Future research should focus on the long-term ecological consequences of the bleaching events recorded in 2016 and 2020, which represent the most severe on record.

8. Expressing surprise, indignation, or disbelief

Should is used — particularly in British English — to express surprise, indignation, or disbelief about something that has happened or been said. This use is emotional and emphatic.

For example:

It is extraordinary that the committee should reject a proposal of such obvious scientific merit without offering any detailed justification. Why should the most vulnerable ecosystems bear the greatest burden of the damage caused by deep-sea mining?

9. Expressing purpose — so that… should

Should is used in formal purpose clauses introduced by so that — a slightly more formal alternative to the so that… can construction.

For example:

The data is archived in full so that future researchers should have access to the complete record of measurements. The methodology is documented in meticulous detail so that the study should be fully reproducible by independent teams.

10. Hedging and tentativeness in academic writing

Should is used in academic writing to express the expected or recommended course of action with appropriate tentativeness — presenting recommendations as reasoned conclusions rather than absolute dictates.

For example:

The results should be interpreted with caution given the relatively small sample size and the limited geographical range of the survey. Care should be taken to distinguish between short-term variability and genuine directional change in the underlying trend.

11. Expressing what is right or morally appropriate

Should expresses moral expectation — what the speaker believes is ethically right or socially appropriate.

For example:

The benefits of deep-sea mineral extraction should be shared equitably with the communities most affected by its environmental consequences. Scientists should be transparent about the limitations and uncertainties of their findings when communicating with policymakers and the public.

12. Should have — expressing unfulfilled past obligation or expectation

Should have + past participle expresses regret or criticism about a past action — implying that something was the right or expected thing to do but was not done, or that something was expected to have happened but did not.

For example:

The team should have established baseline measurements before the mining operations began — the absence of this data now makes it impossible to quantify the damage. The results should have been submitted for peer review before they were communicated to the press — the breach of protocol has undermined their credibility.

D. Shall vs. Should — Key Distinctions

3. Usage in Context

• Shall is used in questions with I and we to make offers and suggestions — this is its most active function in modern British English.

Shall I check the calibration of the monitoring equipment before the first dive of the day? Shall we review the data from the first three sites before deciding how to allocate the remaining survey time?

• Shall is used in formal legal, official, and regulatory documents to impose obligations — expressing what is required or mandated with the force of a formal requirement.

All expedition members shall complete the mandatory safety briefing before boarding the research vessel. The data shall be submitted to the central archive in the agreed format within thirty days of collection.

• Shall in formal conditional clauses — particularly in legal and contractual language — expresses obligations that apply if specified conditions are met.

Should any member of the team fail to comply with the safety protocols, the expedition leader shall have the authority to suspend that individual’s participation immediately. The funding body shall release additional resources should the preliminary findings demonstrate the scientific merit described in the original proposal.

• Should gives advice and makes recommendations — expressing what the speaker believes is the right, sensible, or appropriate course of action.

Scientists should establish comprehensive baseline measurements of deep-sea ecosystems before any large-scale extraction operations are permitted to begin. The research team should recalibrate all instruments at the start of each dive and record the calibration data in the field log.

• Should expresses moderate obligation — less strong than must but more than a mere suggestion — implying that something is expected, required, or appropriate.

All research data should be archived in a format that is accessible to future researchers, regardless of changes in software or storage technology. Members of the expedition team should be familiar with the emergency evacuation procedures before the vessel leaves port.

• Should expresses expectation — what the speaker believes is probable or the natural expected outcome.

The team should have arrived at the Antarctic monitoring station by now — they departed five days ago and the crossing typically takes four. The results should be consistent across all three laboratories if the methodology has been applied correctly and the instruments are functioning within specification.

• Should expresses logical deduction — the speaker’s reasoned conclusion about what is likely to be true based on available evidence.

If the instruments are properly calibrated and the conditions are stable, the readings should fall within the predicted range at all three monitoring sites. Given the current rate of retreat, the glacier should reach its minimum recorded extent within the next decade under the most conservative warming projections.

• Should is used in formal if-clauses — particularly in written English — to express a possible but uncertain future condition with a tone of greater tentativeness than the simple present.

Should the weather deteriorate beyond safe operating limits, the expedition team will return to port immediately and await a more favourable window. Should further evidence emerge to contradict the preliminary findings, the research team will revise its conclusions and resubmit the paper for review.

• Should makes formal recommendations in academic, scientific, and policy writing.

Policymakers should establish a binding international regulatory framework for deep-sea mining before extraction operations are permitted to expand beyond their current limited scope. Future studies should employ larger and more geographically diverse sample sets in order to produce findings that are representative of the full range of conditions across the ocean basin.

• Should in academic writing hedges interpretations and conclusions — presenting them as reasoned assessments rather than definitive claims.

The results should be interpreted with appropriate caution given the relatively small sample size and the limited temporal scope of the current study. Care should be taken when generalising from these findings to other regions, where oceanographic conditions may differ significantly.

• Should expresses surprise, indignation, or disbelief — a characteristically British use that is emotional and emphatic.

It is quite extraordinary that the committee should reject a proposal of such clear scientific merit without providing any substantive justification for its decision. Why should the communities least responsible for carbon emissions bear the greatest burden of the consequences of climate change?

• Should have + past participle expresses regret or criticism about a past action — implying that something was expected or obligatory but was not done.

The research team should have established comprehensive baseline measurements before the survey began — the absence of this data now makes it impossible to assess the full extent of any changes that have occurred. The findings should have been submitted for peer review before they were communicated to the media — the failure to follow this protocol has called their credibility into question.

• Should not have + past participle expresses regret or criticism about something that was done but should not have been.

The data should not have been released before it had been independently verified — the premature publication has created unnecessary confusion in the scientific community. The expedition should not have proceeded into the restricted area without the required authorisation from the regulatory body.

• In the passive voice, shall and should are followed by be + past participle.

All data shall be archived in accordance with the established protocols within thirty days of collection. The findings should be interpreted in the light of the methodological limitations described in the appendix.

• In formal academic writing, should is preferred over ought to for recommendations and advice — they are largely interchangeable in meaning, but should is more common and more natural in contemporary academic prose.

Future research should examine the long-term consequences of the current period of rapid deep-sea temperature change. (preferred in academic writing) Future research ought to examine the long-term consequences. (also correct but slightly less common)

• Do not use shall in questions asking about other people’s future actions — use will instead.

Will the committee announce its decision before the end of the week? (not Shall the committee announce?) Will the expedition depart on schedule? (not Shall the expedition depart?)

• Do not confuse should for advice with must for strong obligation — should implies recommendation; must implies necessity or strong requirement.

Scientists should submit their findings for peer review. (advice — recommended but not obligatory) Scientists must submit their findings for peer review before communicating them to policymakers. (strong obligation — required)

4. Common Errors and Corrections

5. Lesson Mastery

After completing this lesson, you should now be able to:

    ✅ Identify and apply all the main meanings of shall and should

    ✅ Understand when shall is used and when it has been replaced by will in modern English

    ✅ Use should correctly across its full range of meanings — advice, obligation, expectation, deduction, and formal recommendation

    ✅ Recognise and correct common errors in the use of shall and should