Spanish · Chapter 27 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
The future and conditional of probability
Serian las tres, estara en casa - Spanish guesses about the present with the future tense and about the past with the conditional (plus habra llegado / habria salido for finished actions, and deber de + infinitive). Supposition, not time.
The short version
Future guesses the present, conditional the past
Where English scatters must, probably and I wonder, Spanish bends a whole tense to the job. ¿Qué hora será? asks what time it is now, not later. Estará en casa means he is probably at home. Shift the guess back in time and you shift to the conditional: serían las tres, it was probably about three.
¿Qué hora será?
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