B2 · The future
The future that is not one
« Onde estarão as chaves? » is a question English cannot ask this way.
Serão dez horas does not mean « it will be ten o'clock ». It means « it must be about ten ». The future is expressing a guess about the <b>present</b>.
English does part of this — « that will be the postman » — but only in a statement. Turn it into a question and the trick stops working: « where will the keys be? » is a question about the future, about where they are going to end up. Portuguese asks onde estarão as chaves? and means « where on earth are they now ». That second use has no English form at all, and it is extremely common.
For a guess about the past there is the futuro composto: terá saído cedo — « he must have left early ». Built from ter in the future plus the participle.
The conditional does the same job seen from a point in the past: seriam dez horas quando ele chegou — « it must have been about ten when he arrived ».
Die Form
| it must be about ten | serão dez horas |
| he is probably at home | estará em casa |
| he must have left early | terá saído cedo |
| it must have been about ten | seriam dez horas |
| he had probably forgotten | teria esquecido |
| wherever can he be? | onde estará ele? |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The future guesses about now.
Ele estará no trabalho a esta hora.At this hour he is probably at work.
The compound future guesses about before.
Terá perdido o comboio.He must have missed the train.
The conditional guesses from a past point.
Seriam oito horas quando saiu.It must have been eight when he left.
In a question it becomes wondering aloud.
Onde estarão as chaves?Where can the keys be?
Woran man es erkennt
- serão
- estará
- terá
- seriam
Beispielsätze
Não atende — estará numa reunião.He is not picking up — he must be in a meeting.
A luz está apagada, já terão saído.The light is off, they must have left already.
Quem será a esta hora?Who can that be at this hour?
Teriam sido umas cinquenta pessoas.There must have been about fifty people.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
For a real future, spoken Portuguese nearly always takes ir plus the infinitive. Say ele estará em casa meaning « he will be at home » and you will be heard as guessing that he is at home right now. The real future is ele vai estar em casa.
The futuro says how sure rather than when.
Jetzt selbst
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