Great inaccuracy is likewise indulged in the usual description of the English future tense. There is no variation of the verb to express a future action; to remedy this defect, the English use _shall_ and _will_, before the verb in its radical form. But these words are both in the present time; being merely the Teutonic verbs _sollen_ and _wollen_, which formerly had, and in the German still have, most of the inflections of regular verbs. Thus: Ind. Pref. _Ich soll_, I ought or should. _Ich will_, I will. Imp. _Ich sollt_, I ought or should. _Ich wollt_, I would. Preter. _Ich habe gesollt_, I ought or should have. _Ich habe gewollt_, I would or would have, &c. &c.[107] _I will go_ is really nothing more than a _present_ promise of a _future_ action. I _shall go_ is a _present_ prediction of a _future_ action. In the second and third persons, _will_ expresses the prediction; and as one cannot promise for a second or third person, _shall_, in these persons, implies a promise of the first person, that he will _command_ or _oblige_ the second or third person to do an action in some future time. The whole may be thus explained: _I will go_, Is my own _present_ promise to do a future action. _Thou wilt go_--_He will go_, are my (the speaker's) _present_ predictions that the persons mentioned will do a future action; or perhaps more properly, a declaration of their inclination or intention. _I shall go_, is my _present_ prediction of a future action. _Thou shalt go_--_He shall go_, are my (the speaker's) _present_ promise that the second and third persons will do a future action. But as a man cannot compel a superior, he can promise only for himself or inferiors; therefore these last expressions imply a promise in the speaker, and a right to command the second and third persons to do the thing promised; for which reason they are used only in addressing or speaking of, inferiors or subjects. The same remarks apply to the three persons in the plural number. Hence we observe the inaccuracy of translating the future tense of the Greeks, Romans, and French, by _shall_ or _will_ indifferently. It is probable that the future tense in those languages, and perhaps in others, where the tense is formed by inflections, was employed merely to _foretell_. If so, _shall_ only should be used in the first person of the English translation, and _will_, in the second and third. Thus: _Latin._ _French._ _English._ Habebo, J'aurai, I shall have. Habebimus, nous aurons, we shall have. Habebis, tu auras, thou wilt have. Habebit, il aura, he will have. Habebitis, vous aurez, you will have. Habebunt, ils auront, they will have.