SHALL

Here is an example of a word that is slowly disappearing. In the past SHALL was used after I and We while WILL was used with all the other subject pronouns. It was, in other words, a modal verb used to talk about the future. This is no longer the case since WILL has replaced SHALL in this context entirely.
Is then SHALL gone for good? Not quite. This modal is still being used essentially with two purposes. The first is in legal documents to express determination or obligation: "The board of judges shall have the final word in this matter." The second is in formal invitations (perhaps its most popular usage, so to speak): "Shall we go now?"
Shall we Dance? is a 2004 film that is really a remake of a Japanese movie  (which is better) about ballroom dancing and a group of people who leave their inhitions behind when they dance. It's also a story of ambiguous love starred in the American version by none other than Jennifer López and Richard Gere. In this one Gere plays a disenchanted lawyer named John Clark who has everything but feels his life is incomplete somehow. One day, he sees a woman (López) leaning out on a window and suddenly decides to take dance lessons. He meets the woman whose name is Paulina. They never get really serious but each one finds something: Clark loves dancing now and his life is finally complete while Paulina finds the inspiration she had lost to keep on participating in dancing competitions something she had stopped doing. There are other characters as well; all of them with interesting stories that are intertwined thanks to their common love for ballroom dancing. 
Shall we Dance? is a  movie that will not bore you out and a great opportunity to enrich your vocabulary by learning dancing related terms. Curiously enough the expression that is title of this movie is seldom or not said at all in the whole film. Hollywood is like that.
BTW: just like Could is the past form of Can, the past form of Shall is none other than Should.

Comments

Luis Tapia said…
I really liked that movie,think i watched it 4 years ago, it was an excellent performance of both actors.
What other words are disappearing?
August 1, 2012 at 7:16 PM
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