Contents introduction chapter I grammatical meaning, grammatical form

Shall and should {Main article: Shall and will). The verb shall is used in some varieties of English in place of will, indicating futurity, when the subject is first person (I shall, we shall). With second- and third-person
¹² David Rubin, "might could (double modal)", The Mavens' Word of the Day, Random House, November 20, 2000, p. 63.
subjects, shall indicates an order, command or prophecy: Cinderella, you shall go to the ball! It is often used in writing laws and specifications: Those convicted of violating this law shall be imprisoned for a term of not less than three years; The electronics assembly shall be able to operate within a normal temperature range. Shall is sometimes used in questions (in the first, or possibly third, person) to ask for advice or confirmation of a suggestion: Shall I read now?; What shall we wear?
Should is sometimes used as a first-person equivalent¹³ for would (in its conditional and "future-in-the-past" uses), in the same way that shall can replace will. Should is also used to form a replacement for the present subjunctive in some varieties of English, and also in some conditional sentences with hypothetical future reference - see English subjunctive and English conditional sentences¹⁴. Should is often used to describe an expected or recommended behavior or circumstance. It can be used to give advice or to describe normative behavior, though without such strong obligatory force as must or have to. Thus You should never lie describes a social or ethical norm. It can also express what will happen according to theory or expectations: This should work. In these uses it is equivalent to ought to. Both shall and should can be used with the perfect infinitive (shall/should have (done)) in their role as first-person equivalents of will and would (thus to form future perfect or conditional perfect structures). Also shall have may express an order with perfect aspect (you shall have finished your duties by nine o'clock). When should is used in this way it usually expresses something which would have been expected, or normatively required, at some time in the past, but which did not in fact happen (or is not known to have happened): I should have done that yesterday ("it would have been expedient, or expected of me, to do that yesterday")¹⁵.
The negative forms are shall not and should not, contracted to shan't and shouldn't. The negation effectively applies to the main verb rather
¹³ David Rubin, "might could (double modal)", The Mavens' Word of the Day, Random House, November 20, 2000,
p. 155.
¹⁴ Comrie, Bernard, Tense, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985, p. 202.
¹⁵ Kenneth G. Wilson, "Double Modal Auxiliaries", The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, 1993, p. 85.than the auxiliary: you should not do this implies not merely that there is no need to do it, but that there is a need not to do it.