Shall have done？
Do we use “shall have done” followed by second and third persons? I understand that if ‘shall’ comes after second and third persons, it is employed to indicate an obligation or a warning, etc. How about ‘shall have done’?
for example: Company A shall have contributed 50 million dollars to the joint venture.
Is such usage correct? I feel somewhat strange. I understand that if we want to use future perfect tense, we will use “will have done” and in case of first persons “shall” could be adopted instead of “will”. If we want to use subjunctive mood, we will use “should have done”.
“[third persons] shall have done” looks neither future perfect nor an indication of obligations. I think it is wrong. Am I right?
Jasper
June 10, 2012, 7:59am
My teacher told me that should/could/would also denote the future tense and with the addition of have, the future perfect. Should is used for first person and would for second and third persons and could for both. So a revision would be: "He would/could have done [this]".
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lastronin (unregistered)
February 18, 2008, 11:00am
Jim Van is correct that the issue is Shall vs. Will.
I agree with Ruricolist that shall is used with first person only. But even in paraphrasing, I would make the correction:
The agreement says that by the end of next month, company A will have contributed 50 million dollars to the joint venture.
Or, without correction, use quotation marks in writing:
The agreement says, "By the end of next month, company A shall have contributed 50 million dollars to the joint venture."
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Jim Van (unregistered)
February 4, 2008, 1:58pm
Isn't "shall" more definitive than "will"? and it is used more often by the British English speakers as opposed to the American English speakers?
So, whether it's Future Tense or Future Perfect Tense, the issue is the usage of Shall Vs. Will.
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Ruricolist (unregistered)
January 16, 2008, 4:40pm
I would think it acceptable only if you were indirectly quoting a command. For example, if an agreement said:
"Company A shall contribute 50 million dollars to the Venture before March 1."
Then you could say:
"The agreement says that by the end of next month, company A shall have contributed 50 million dollars to the joint venture."
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