In article <VBRjf.34855$6e1.27926@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>,
"Tom" <Tom@Metroplex.com> wrote:
> Both sentences are correct but have slightly different meanings.
>
> If I were to be born again, I shall be a great scholar. This is similar to:
>
> If I were to be born again, I will be a great scholar. Will and shall
> denotes certainty.
>
> Where as:
>
> If I were to be born again, I should be a great scholar. Should denotes
> uncertainty.
>
> I should be a great scholar but I may not.
Normally, your statements about shall & should are correct but -- in
this instance, I think -- they are used slightly different.
"If I were to be born again, I shall be a great scholar" sounds a bit
off to my [American] ear. It's not QUITE mixed-tenses, but it has that
same "not quite right" ring to it.
"If I were to be born again, I should be a great scholar" sounds as if
it states the great-scholar-ness of the speaker's future self with
certainty, but using a slightly outdated British usage. In that usage,
"should" is sometimes used interchangeably with "would", so the sentence
REALLY means "if I were to be born again, I would be a great scholar."
Said with the same "old fashioned" formal-sounding tone as "Yardwork? I
should have thought you'd rather go fishing, on a nice day like today."
See how "should" means "would", in this sentence? Same thing.
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