Let's try this again.
Recently a very frustrated someone asked me, "What is this shall and will? How to know when to use shall and will?
I proceded to give him a mini lecture on how shall/will used be be conjugated back in the day, explaining that the usage that existed when I was a child has been replaced by something more relaxed. He persisted in his frustration and asked me when the change came about. That is why I am posting the following question.
The nuns taught me that shall/will is conjugated this way:
I shall
you will
he will
we shall
you will
they will
Similarly, should/would is conjugated this way:
I should
you would
he would
we should
you would
they would
My specific question was, how long ago was I shall / we shall and I should / we should replaced by I will / we will and I would / we would in the popular vernacular?
Had I got it wrong back in the fourth grade, I could have expected my knuckles to get rapped
I've deleted the editorializing comment I made (apologies). Now all I want is to get a timeline for when the accepted usage changed. Wikipedia does not supply this information, nor does the AP style handbook.
