How is "shall" transrated in Español?

Question

Hola,

I wonder what verb in Espanol can be used instead of shall in english?

Shall is a Modal - which is not a verb -so it does not exist as a word in Spansh - nor do any of the other Modals. - ian-hill, Aug 11, 2010

Answer 1

Based on reading the Bible a decent bit in Spanish, I agree with Kevin. Spanish doesn't have very many helping verbs, definitely not as many as English, but they make up for this by using much more specifically conjugated verbs for all of the different moods and tenses.

Too tired to tell you what tense would be a good replacement right now, but maybe I will be able to edit this in the morning with a better answer xD

future tense! - fatchocobo, Aug 11, 2010

haha... yeah, that!! I knew that... hehe that's just what I get for trying to answer a post at 1 AM! - megan5, Aug 12, 2010

Answer 2

Shall is a Modal - which is not a verb -so it does not exist as a word in Spansh - nor do any of the other Modals.

The Modals are:

Can - could

Will - would

Shall - should

Used to - ought to

May - might

Must

For all of these you have to find another way of relating them to Spanish than a "word for word" translation.

Examples:

Shall we cross now? (the road) ¿Cruzaremos ahora? (a suggestion)

I shall return. Volveré = I will return. But in English the "shall" implies a "promise.

Answer 3

I think you could use "podría" but I would need a sentence to put this in a context

Welcome to the forum! Podría might work in some cases, but it means "I/he/she/it would be able to". It doesn't really mean shall. There isn't one Spanish word that does. - KevinB, Aug 11, 2010

Answer 4

Welcome to the forum.

Shall isn't a verb per se, it's a helping verb. Spanish doesn't have many of them, and there is no word that corresponds to shall. It's part of the verb conjugation, which is completely different in Spanish than English. I'd suggest checking out a couple of the lessons in the Learning tab here, though I will warn you that shall comes up later on.