conjugation.future.probability
Future of probability: serán las cinco
Spanish uses the future tense to guess about the present: ¿Qué hora será? Serán las cinco — 'It must be around five.'
conjugationB1, B2standardinternally_reviewedv1.0.0
Explanation
A future form aimed at the present expresses conjecture, not time: ¿Dónde estará Juan? means 'I wonder where Juan is'; estará en casa means 'he's probably at home'.
This is one of the most common real-life uses of the simple future in speech — often more common than its temporal use.
The same logic shifts back one step with the conditional, which guesses about the past: serían las cinco cuando llegó — 'it must have been around five when he arrived'.
Examples
¿Qué hora será?
What time can it be? / I wonder what time it is.
What time can it be? / I wonder what time it is.
Region: global
Tendrá unos cuarenta años.
He must be about forty.
He must be about forty.
Region: global
Estarán de viaje; no contestan.
They're probably traveling; they're not answering.
They're probably traveling; they're not answering.
Region: global