Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The Blog of American English

Here we will post on the English language. Whatever ticks us off, whatever we find interesting, whatever we think people need to know.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Alexandra and Craig,

Congratulations on your exciting and informative website about English usage.

I'm a French national living in New Zealand, and there would be so much to say about New Zealand English.

Now, I have a wee question about shall, that is quite frequent here in NZ. It is often used over the telephone to express a commitment that wraps it all up:

I shall see you at 8.00pm in front of the cinema
I shall email you my travel details.

...or convey hesitation

mhhh...I shall...have... the roast chicken.

When I shared this with scholars, they exclaim: " You're wrong, shall is non existent in oral speech. People only say I'll and sometimes I will."

What do you think? Do you think you'd be able to write a post about "shall"?

Out of interest, here's the URL of my own blog regarding English usage:
http://dichtelblog.blogspot.com

May I include you in my mailing list?

Best regards

Frédéric Dichtel
Te Awamutu - New Zealand
frederic.dichtel@paradise.net.nz

11:45 PM  

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