Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Interrogatives with shall and will

418d

Shall I

is frequently used when the speaker is offering to do something or

suggesting a course of action involving the speaker:

A: 

Shall I make you a drink, 

would you like a tea or coffee?

B: Erm, black coffee please.

A: Black coffee. 

B: No milk no sugar. That’d be wonderful. 

A: Right.

[adult to children]

A: All right. Let’s read a story. How should we do it? 

Shall I sit in the middle of

you?

Yeah? 

Shall I sit in between you

so you can both look at the story

together? Is that all right? 

How about if I sit in between you?

B: Mm.

(note here also: How about if …, which is also used for making suggestions. 

Û

421a What about, what if, how about below

)

Shall we eat out tonight?

Will I

is used in several British and Irish English dialects (ones where shall is

rarely used, e.g. Scottish, Welsh) in offers to do something:

[friends together in an informal group]

A: 

Will I take a group photograph? 

B: No. It won’t come out. [laughter]

A: Oh, I think I should yeah. 

C: Yeah.

700 | Speech acts

Cambridge Grammar of English

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