So here goes:
shall is formally (and was formerly) used in the first person, and will in the second and third.
But of course in spoken English, and often in written too now, ‘ll is commonly used as a contraction of both will and shall
So, formally and formerly: I/we shall go, you/he/she/it/they will go
Even though we now use ‘ll a lot, the old shall/will rule can be heard/seen in questions: Shall I/we go? Will you/he/she/it/they go?
Shan’t used to be used in first person negatives: I/we shan’t go but now we usually say I/we won’t go
When being emphatic, we swap them over, as in You shall go to the ball, Cinderella!
I will marry Edgar Linton. (imagined utterance by Cathy in Wuthering Heights)
Did you notice the wonderful homophones (words pronounced the same but with different spelling and different meaning) above? FORMALLY and FORMERLY.
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