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Re: Fw: english grammar



"I shall return," General MacArthur

This is an interesting one. One can make the argument that the General should have said, I WILL
return, on the grounds that this was his intention and that come hell or high water he would make
certain to reappear.

However (and I suspect this is what the General was thinking), to use "shall" here implies
destiny, inevitability or fate.

And so it proved to be.

--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
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