Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall', and now intones "The next lift
shall be the one to the right."

In my experience this error is usually made by people who want to look
better at grammar than they are, and who are prone to saying "whom"
instead of "who" on every occasion.

G.
--
Grebbsy McLaren

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On Sat, 12 Mar 2016 18:02:04 +0000, Grebbsy McLaren
wrote:

Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall', and now intones "The next lift
shall be the one to the right."

In my experience this error is usually made by people who want to look
better at grammar than they are, and who are prone to saying "whom"
instead of "who" on every occasion.

G.
Themselve's should be ashamed.

On Saturday, 12 March 2016 18:12:25 UTC, Grebbsy McLaren wrote:
Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall', and now intones "The next lift
shall be the one to the right."

In my experience this error is usually made by people who want to look
better at grammar than they are, and who are prone to saying "whom"
instead of "who" on every occasion.

G.
--
Grebbsy McLaren

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

Criticising LU's grammar using fail as a noun seems a bit rich!

On 14/03/2016 09:43, Ralph Ayres wrote:

Criticising LU's grammar using fail as a noun seems a bit rich!

Times change and usage with it: the OED's 1993 draft additions included
that usage - "A failure to achieve the standard required to pass an
examination; a classification denoting this." - with quotations from
1944 and 1988.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Saturday, 12 March 2016 18:12:25 UTC, Grebbsy McLaren wrote:
Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?
--
Joyce Whitchurch, Stalybridge, UK
=================================

In message , at
05:22:47 on Mon, 14 Mar 2016, remarked:

Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?

"Will" is a mere prediction, "Shall" implies that the speaker is somehow
complicit in making it happen.
--
Roland Perry

On 14/03/2016 12:22, wrote:
On Saturday, 12 March 2016 18:12:25 UTC, Grebbsy McLaren wrote:
Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?

Traditionally it's the difference between:

a. a statement of (expected) fact: eg "you will read this post"; and
b. an order or command: eg "you shall read this post" [often with an
explicit or implicit "or else"]

And just to make English that bit harder, the shall/will switch when in
the first person. So eg the old example of the girl who fell in the
Thames at Henley and cried out:

"I will drown; no one shall save me!"

The English gentlemen on the riverbank naturally honoured her clear
expression of intent ("I will...") and her command to them ("no one
shall...") and left her to drown.

They would have of course have leapt to her recuse if only she had cried
out "I shall drown; no one will save me".

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Mon, 14 Mar 2016 12:40:06 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
05:22:47 on Mon, 14 Mar 2016, remarked:

Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?

"Will" is a mere prediction, "Shall" implies that the speaker is somehow
complicit in making it happen.

A good definition. Though I think its safe to say the distinction is pretty
blurred these days and they tend to be used interchangably a lot of the time.

--
Spud

In message , at 13:58:27 on Mon, 14 Mar
2016, d remarked:

Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today, and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?

"Will" is a mere prediction, "Shall" implies that the speaker is somehow
complicit in making it happen.

A good definition. Though I think its safe to say the distinction is pretty
blurred these days and they tend to be used interchangably a lot of the time.

cont'd: "Dogs Must/Shall/Will be carried" - on escalators.

Although the latter means "are allowed to be", rather than an
instruction to carry dogs (whether one has one handy or not...)
--
Roland Perry

On 2016\03\14 14:18, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:58:27 on Mon, 14 Mar
2016, d remarked:

Used Mornington Crescent station for the first time in years today,
and
was disappointed to find that the mechanical voice doesn't know the
difference between 'will' and 'shall'

Could you perhaps explain the difference?

"Will" is a mere prediction, "Shall" implies that the speaker is somehow
complicit in making it happen.

A good definition. Though I think its safe to say the distinction is
pretty
blurred these days and they tend to be used interchangably a lot of
the time.

cont'd: "Dogs Must/Shall/Will be carried" - on escalators.

Although the latter means "are allowed to be", rather than an
instruction to carry dogs (whether one has one handy or not...)

The "latter"... of three items? Talk about a grammar fail!

(It should be "last" if there are more than two items.)