What is the difference between "will" and "shall"?

My wife tells me I should go to the arena so I will.

I shall go to the arena.

"Roughly speaking, should follows the same rules as shall, and would as will; in what follows, Sh. may be taken as an abbreviation for shall, should, and should have, and W. for will, would, and would have."

Shall:

AUXILIARY VERB: Inflected forms: past tense should

Should + will = shall

the traditional rules. The traditional rules state that you use shall to show what happens in the future only when I or we is the subject: I shall (not will) call you tomorrow. We shall (not will) be sure to keep in touch. Will, on the other hand, is used with subjects in the second and third persons: The comet will (not shall) return in 87 years. You will (not shall) probably encounter some heavy seas when you round the point. However, you can use will with a subject in the first person and shall with a subject in the second or third person to express determination, promise, obligation, or permission, depending on the context. Thus I will leave tomorrow indicates that the speaker is determined to leave. You shall leave tomorrow has the ring of a command. The sentence You shall have your money expresses a promise (“I will see that you get your money”), whereas You will have your money makes a simple prediction. 1

the reality. The English and some sticklers about usage are probably the only people who follow these rules, and then not with perfect consistency. In America, people who try to adhere to them run the risk of sounding pretentious or haughty. Americans normally use will to express most of the senses reserved for shall in British usage. Americans use shall chiefly in first person invitations and questions that request an opinion or agreement, such as Shall we go?, and in certain fixed expressions, such as We shall overcome. In formal style, Americans use shall to express an explicit obligation, such as Applicants shall provide a proof of residence, though must or should works just as well here. In speech you can get the distinctions in meaning delineated in the traditional rules by putting stress on the auxiliary verb, as in I will leave tomorrow (“I intend to leave”). You can also choose another auxiliary verb, such as must or have to, that is less open to misinterpretation, or you can make your meaning clear by adding an adverb such as certainly.

I think they have the same meaning but "shall and will are not only used for giving information about the future. They are also common in offers, promises, orders and similar kinds of 'interpersonal' language use. In these cases, will (or 'll) generally expresses willingness, wishes or strong intentions (this is connected with an older use of will to mean 'wish' or 'want'). Shall expresses obligation (like a more direct form of should)."

Correction in the 1st part of your question > Shall I be careful on how to use them... ...

The closest meaning for 'shall' is 'should', and that's only apply to the 'I' and 'We' pronoun.

Whenever you want to use the 'shall' try to think of the sentence, can you also use the 'should' instead of 'shall'.

'Will' in this case often goes with the thing that you're planning to do.

great question madhavi:) yOU know though these words sound synonimous but still there lies a "deep" difference !! Happiness can be found of things which may not even be beneficial to our spiritual or psychological aspect like we may go out & have our favourite dish & clothes etc., we would feel happy. But satisfaction comes from a kind of achievent, if we get good grades in studies we would get a positive feeling that says "hard word paid off" now thats more beneficial isn't it ;p[ Now peace.... I think it depends on what attitude we adopt towads the "activities" we do for "happiness" or either "satisfaction", peace actually exist in our self, it just has to be found by us. A person of ignorance might feel peace while a hard worker could be strresed. It can be even oposite to that . So peace needs to found by us.

shall=declaring in obligation to do something

will=a probabability that one may do something

Just to make the difference short and sweet.

It does make a difference, for if you say shall 90% of the time, you will sound like a prophecy and with will, you will sound unsure of your motives. So you can use a ltitle of both. Hoped that helped.

In the UK, they are used differently in England from Scotland.

The standard (English) usage is as follows.

I shall, we shall, you will, he will, she will, it will, they will all mean the simple future. In other words they express something that is going to happen.

I will, we will, you shall, he shall, she shall, they shall, it shall express a determination or wanting that is absent in the simple future tense.

In Scotland the meanings are the exact reverse of those used in England

Formerly, shall was used as the first person form of the verb will to express future tense. Using will in first person implied intent or definite decision. When shall was used in second or third person, it expressed obligation.

we use shall when you use I or we. for example, i shall be late for the meetin or shall we dance?

but nowadays people just use shall and will in all the wrong places, like i will do it!!! its really i shall do it. hope that helps

i think of shall when i think of the word suppose, like i suppose i will do that, i shall do that. i will do that, is like making a commitment to do something. thats what i think anyway.