I. MODAL VERB USES
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: 'Will' is a modal verb. It is used with the base form of a verb. In spoken English and informal written English, the form 'won’t' is often used in negative statements.
1.
You use ~ to indicate that you hope, think, or have evidence that something is going to happen or be the case in the future.
You ~ find a wide variety of choices available in school cafeterias...
Representatives from across the horse industry ~ attend the meeting...
70 per cent of airports in the Far East ~ have to be upgraded...
Will you ever feel at home here?...
The ship ~ not be ready for a month.
MODAL
2.
You use ~ in order to make statements about official arrangements in the future.
The show ~ be open to the public at 2pm; admission ~ be 50p...
When ~ I be released, sir?
MODAL
3.
You use ~ in order to make promises and threats about what is going to happen or be the case in the future.
I’ll call you tonight...
Price quotes on selected product categories ~ be sent on request...
If she refuses to follow rules about car safety, she won’t be allowed to use the car.
MODAL
4.
You use ~ to indicate someone’s intention to do something.
I ~ say no more on these matters, important though they are...
In this section we ~ describe common myths about cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana...
‘Dinner’s ready.’—‘Thanks, Carrie, but we’ll have a drink first.’...
What ~ you do next?...
Will you be remaining in the city?
MODAL
5.
You use ~ in questions in order to make polite invitations or offers.
Will you stay for supper?...
Will you join me for a drink?...
Won’t you sit down?
MODAL politeness
6.
You use ~ in questions in order to ask or tell someone to do something.
Will you drive me home?...
Wipe the jam off my mouth, ~ you?
= would
MODAL
7.
You can use ~ in statements to give an order to someone. (FORMAL)
You ~ now maintain radio silence...
You ~ not discuss this matter with anyone.
MODAL
8.
You use ~ to say that someone is ~ing to do something. You use ~ not or won’t to indicate that someone refuses to do something.
All right, I’ll forgive you...
He has insisted that his organisation ~ not negotiate with the government.
MODAL
see also ~ing
9.
You use ~ to say that a person or thing is able to do something in the future.
How the country ~ defend itself in the future has become increasingly important...
How ~ I recognize you?
MODAL
10.
You use ~ to indicate that an action usually happens in the particular way mentioned.
The thicker the material, the less susceptible the garment ~ be to wet conditions...
There’s no snake known that ~ habitually attack human beings unless threatened with its life...
MODAL
11.
You use ~ in the main clause of some ‘if’ and ‘unless’ sentences to indicate something that you consider to be fairly likely to happen.
If you overcook the pancakes they ~ be difficult to roll...
MODAL
12.
You use ~ to say that someone insists on behaving or doing something in a particular way and you cannot change them. You emphasize ~ when you use it in this way.
He ~ leave his socks lying all over the place and it drives me mad.
MODAL
13.
You use ~ have with a past participle when you are saying that you are fairly certain that something ~ be true by a particular time in the future.
As many as ten-million children ~ have been infected with the virus by the end of the decade...
MODAL
14.
You use ~ have with a past participle to indicate that you are fairly sure that something is the case.
The holiday ~ have done him the world of good.
MODAL
II. WANTING SOMETHING TO HAPPEN
(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
Will is the determination to do something.
He was said to have lost his ~ to live.
...the inevitable battle of ~s as your child realises that he can’t do or have everything he wants...
N-VAR: oft N to-inf
see also free ~
2.
If something is the ~ of a person or group of people with authority, they want it to happen.
Democracy responds and adjusts to the ~ of the people...
N-SING: with poss
3.
If you ~ something to happen, you try to make it happen by using mental effort rather than physical effort.
I looked at the telephone, ~ing it to ring...
VERB: V n to-inf
4.
A ~ is a document in which you declare what you want to happen to your money and property when you die.
Attached to his ~ was a letter he had written to his wife just days before his death.
N-COUNT
5.
If something is done against your ~, it is done even though you do not want it to be done.
No doubt he was forced to leave his family against his ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v
6.
If you can do something at ~, you can do it when you want and as much as you want.
...scientists who can adjust their experiments at ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v