Learn English – What’s the full answer to “shall I”

modal-verbssentence-construction

The form Shall I is used to make offers, in general. For example

Shall I help you?

and one would answer

Yeah, help me

but what's the full answer? I mean, with a question like

You will go for meat, won't you?
Short answer: Yeah.
Full answer: Yes I will.

But shall as a second person has another meaning

Shall I help you?
Yes you shall. <– it's no more a suggestion: I'm requiring you to do that.

and using Yes you will still sounds imperative. Therefore, is there a full answer to that form as there is for normal verbs like do, will, be and so on?

Best Answer

I would say, "Yes, please do."

In other words, if will in a question maps to will in what you are calling a "full answer", then shall in a question maps to do in the "full answer" – at least, that's one way we can look at it.

It's hard to say a mapping like this is 100% reliable, but it does seem to work in a variety of circumstances with a number of verbs. For example, consider these:

  • Shall I help you?
  • Shall I eat this last meatball?
  • Shall I meet you at the market in two hours?
  • Shall I just keep this book you let me borrow for another week?
  • Shall I shut up and kiss you?

All of those questions can be answered with, "Yes, please do."

Of course, if you want to answer the other way, you could simply say, "No, please don't."

Related Topic