Page 182 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

However, one kind of repetition that may be less than ideal occurs when you
are repeating a word and can’t seem to find a way to avoid saying it or writing it

a lot.

■ He shut his mouth, but his mouth wouldn’t close like other men’s

mouths, because his mouth was tougher than theirs.

When you’re in this situation, you should avoid what is known as elegant
variation. This is when you are so unwilling to reuse a word that you use many

synonyms for the same thing.

■ He shut his mouth, but his gob wouldn’t close like other men’s maws,

because his kisser was tougher than theirs.

It’s colorful, sure, but it’s also distracting. Instead, break those sentences up, use
pronouns, and don’t be afraid of long sentences where the referent and the

antecedent are far apart.

■ He shut his mouth, but it wouldn’t close like other men’s would. His

was tougher than theirs.

17.15 Shall versus Will

In North America, shall versus will isn’t much of a contest because most English

speakers there don’t use shall, unless they are being ironic, comic, or
pretentious.

When you do hear shall in North American English, it is likely part of a legal
document or conversation, where shall is fossilized with specific uses, such as

indicating legal obligation.

You may occasionally hear shall in formal contexts such as when being
served in a nice restaurant, but one could argue that falls under pretentious uses.

In the United Kingdom, however, one is more likely to hear shall for the
first-person singular or plural to refer to something that is going to happen in the