Modals · CEFR A2 · Everyday
shall — English modal verbs
Offering to do something, or suggesting it together.
The shape
Shall I / shall we + plain verb
Offer to do something, or suggest doing it together.
In Hindi
कुछ करने की पेशकश, या साथ मिलकर करने का सुझाव।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
Shall I to open the window? | Shall I open the window? After "shall" the verb stays plain. |
shall examples
Easiest first. Every sentence is authored, with the Hindi it comes from.
Shall we start?
क्या हम शुरू करें?
Shall I close the door?
क्या मैं दरवाज़ा बंद कर दूँ?
Shall I call you?
क्या मैं तुम्हें फोन करूँ?
Shall I wait for you?
क्या मैं तुम्हारा इंतज़ार करूँ?
Shall we go inside?
क्या हम अंदर चलें?
Shall I tell you later?
क्या मैं तुम्हें बाद में बताऊँ?
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
- Shall I…? Would you like…?A2Offer help or offer somebody something
- How about…? Why don't we…?A2Suggest something to a group without deciding for them
Questions people ask
- What is the shall used for?
- Offering to do something, or suggesting it together. In practice: offer to do something, or suggest doing it together.
- How do you form the shall?
- Shall I / shall we + plain verb.
- What is the most common mistake with the shall?
- Saying “Shall I to open the window?” instead of “Shall I open the window?”. After "shall" the verb stays plain.
Where shall fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
shall is a CEFR A2 structure — the everyday band — and it belongs to modals. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
Practise the shall →