ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with will and shall in both their modal and their future uses. It then deals with the related issue of future time marking by other forms and with conditionals, in which the modals play an important role. The negative form won't negates the modality only. Would is used as a past tense form of will for volition, not only in reported speech, but also for past time reference. Dynamic will is not voice neutral since it always indicates some characteristic of the subject. With shall the speaker gives an undertaking, guarantees that an action will take place. The traditional idea that will and shall are auxiliaries for future tense is still held by some scholars. The grammar of conditional sentences in English is, in reality, very simple, though dependent on several quite specific rules.
