In
Germanic languages other than English,
will and
shall are used differently that in English.
German parallels
Old English usage, in that `
wollen' (will) indicates a desire:
Ich will nach Hause fahren: I want to drive home. `
Sollen' (shall) marks an
obligation:
Ich soll Kants Kritik lesen: I should/shall read
Kant's Critique. Neither makes
explicit reference to the
future, but there is often an
implicit connection: if I want to, or am obligated to, do something, I probably haven't done it yet. In
German, the pure
future is expressed with `
werden' (to become):
Sie wird ihre Bücher verkaufen: She will sell her books.
Dutch has a similar distinction between `willen' (will) and `zullen' (shall). However, the pure future is also expressed with `zullen': Zij zullen een dag sterven: One day they will die.
Apologies for my (probably bad) sentences. I can hardly be said to speak any language but English. And remember, kids: Germanic languages have no future tense.