different between expect vs shall

English

Alternative forms

• axpact, ax-pact (Bermuda)

Etymology

From Latin expect?re, infinitive form of exspect? (“look out for, await, expect”), from ex (“out”) + spect? (“look at”), frequentative of speci? (“see”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sp?kt/, /?k?sp?kt/
• Hyphenation: ex?pect
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

expect (third-person singular simple present expects, present participle expecting, simple past and past participle expected)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To predict or believe that something will happen

   Synonyms: anticipate, hope, look for

   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     And temperatures are expected to keep rising.

2. To consider obligatory or required.

   Synonyms: call for, demand

   • 1805, Nelson, Horatio via Pasco, John, signal sent at the Battle of Trafalgar:

     England expects that every man will do his duty.

3. To consider reasonably due.

   Synonyms: hope, want, wish

4. (continuous aspect only, of a woman or couple) To be pregnant, to consider a baby due.
   • 2011, Eva Fischer-Dixon, The Bestseller

     “You are pregnant?” he asked with shock in his voice. “Yes, Justin, I am expecting a child,”

5. (obsolete, transitive) To wait for; to await.

   Synonyms: await; see also Thesaurus:wait for

   • 1825, Walter Scott, The Talisman, A. and C. Black (1868), 24-25:

     The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To wait; to stay.

   Synonym: wait

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sandys to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Expect is a mental act and mostly has a reference to the future, to some forthcoming event (e.g. a person expects to die, or he expects to survive). Think and believe may have reference to the past and present, as well as to the future (e.g. I think the mail has arrived; I believe he came home yesterday, that he is at home now). There is a not uncommon use of expect, which is a confusion of the two (e.g. I expect the mail has arrived; I expect he is at home). Await is a physical or moral act. We await something which, when it comes, will affect us personally. We expect what may, or may not, interest us personally. See also anticipate.
• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• expect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• expect in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• expect at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• except

English

Alternative forms

• shal (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English schal (infinitive schulen), from Old English s?eal (infinitive s?ulan (“to be obligated or obliged to, shall, must, owe, ought to”)), from Proto-West Germanic *skulan, from Proto-Germanic *skal (infinitive *skulan?), from Proto-Indo-European *skel- (“to owe, be under obligation”).

Cognate with Scots sall, sal (“shall”), West Frisian sil (infinitive sille (“shall”)), Dutch zal (infinitive zullen (“shall”)), Low German schall (infinitive schölen (“shall”)), German soll (infinitive sollen (“ought to”)), Danish skal (infinitive skulle (“shall”)), Icelandic skal (infinitive skulu (“shall”)), Afrikaans sal. Related to shild.

Pronunciation

• (stressed) IPA^(key): /??æl/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /??l/, (pre-consonantal only) /?(?)/
• Rhymes: -æl (when stressed)

Verb

shall (third-person singular simple present shall, no present participle, simple past (archaic) should, no past participle)

1. (modal, auxiliary verb, defective) Used before a verb to indicate the simple future tense in the first person singular or plural.

   I shall sing in the choir tomorrow.

   I hope that we shall win the game.

   • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23

     "Then, having used up the powers of the Golden Cap, I shall give it to the King of the Monkeys, that he and his band may thereafter be free for evermore."

2. Used similarly to indicate determination or obligation in the second and third persons singular or plural.

   (determination): You shall go to the ball!

   (obligation): Citizens shall provide proof of identity.
3. Used in questions with the first person singular or plural to suggest a possible future action.

   Shall I help you with that?

   Shall we go out later?

   Let us examine that, shall we?

4. (obsolete) To owe.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Usage notes

• Shall is about one-fourth as common as will in North America compared to in the United Kingdom. Lack of exposure leads many in North America to consider it formal or even pompous or archaic, best reserved for court decisions and legal contracts. North Americans mainly use it in senses two and three.
• In the past, will and shall were interchangeable and synonymous, used similarly as auxiliary verbs for the future tense but separate persons. The simple future tense traditionally used shall for the first person (”I” and “we”), and will for the second and third persons. This distinction existed largely in formal language and gradually disappeared in Early Modern English.

  I shall go.

  You will go.

  • An emphatic future tense, indicating volition of the speaker, reverses the two words, using will for the first person and shall for the second and third person.

    I will go.

    You shall go.

  • Usage can be reversed in questions and in dependent clauses—especially with indirect discourse. For example: Shall you do it? anticipates the response I shall do it. Or: he says that he shall win or he expects that he shall win anticipate his saying I shall win, not I will win.

Derived terms

• shalbe
• shalt
• shan't

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: sa

Translations

See also

• ought
• should
• will
• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

References

• shall at OneLook Dictionary Search
• shall in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Halls, halls