“Shall” looks like a small word. In a contract, it is not small at all.
“Shall” is an obligation. It does not suggest, it does not hope, it binds. Change it to “may” and the obligation softens into permission. Change it to “will” and you may be describing a future, not promising one. One word, and the whole deal shifts — who must act, by when, and what happens if they do not.
That is why legal English training is never about vocabulary lists. It is about reading each word for what it actually does in the sentence, because in cross-border documents, a mistranslated “shall” can cost a client far more than a typo ever could.
Words are never “just words.” That is the standard behind Million Dollar Words — When One Word Costs Millions, and behind The Global Legal English Masterclass.
Find both books together on my Amazon author page: https://amazon.com/author/denafalken.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/260938774?ref=s_s
