Page:The king's English (IA kingsenglish00fowlrich).pdf/150

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136
SYNTAX

It should seem so. (It would apparently be incumbent on us to believe) Isolated idiom with third.

I will have my way. Not required in second and third; but see below.

I (he) asked him (me) to do it, but he (I) would not. In all.

I would not have done it for the world. In all.

I would be told to wait a while (Habitual). In all.

Will you come with me? Not required in first.

I would I were dead. Not required in second and third.

He will bite his nails, whatever I say. In all.

He will often stand on his head. In all.

You will still be talking (i.e., you always are). Not required in first.

A coat will last two years with care.

It will be noticed that the last four forms are among those that were omitted as not required by the pure system. Will would rarely be required in second and third person statements, but would of course be possible in favourable circumstances, as in describing habitual action, where the will of another may be inferred from past experience. The last of all is a natural extension of the idiom even to things that have no will. All these 'habitual' uses are quite different from I will have my way; and though you will have your way is possible, it always has the 'habitual' meaning, which I will have my way is usually without.

All the forms in the above list, and others like them, have three peculiarities—that they are not practically futures as distinguished from presents; that they use Sh. for all persons, or W. for all persons, if the idea is appropriate to all persons; and that the ideas are simply, or with very little extension, those of command or obligation and wish.

The coloured-future system is so called because, while the future sense is more distinct, it is still coloured with the speaker's mood; command and wish receive extensions and include promise, permission, menace, consent, assurance, intention, refusal, offer, &c.; and the forms used are invariably those—from both Sh. and W.—that we called the practically useful ones in the pure system. That is, we have always