Spanish C1: Guessing: the future & conditional of probability · Words

Spanish guesses with tenses. The future guesses about now: Serán las tres (it must be three). The future perfect about the recent past: Habrá salido (he must have gone out). The conditional about the past: Tendría veinte años (he must have been twenty). Also: a lo mejor + indicative, quizás and tal vez + subjunctive or indicative, deber de + infinitive.

• a lo mejor — maybe, perhaps
• tal vez — perhaps
• deber de — must (guessing)
• supongo que — I suppose
• seguramente — most likely
• por lo visto — apparently
• calcular — to reckon, to calculate
• sospechar — to suspect

• ¿Dónde estará Juan? — Where can Juan be?
• Se habrá dormido. — He must have overslept.
• A lo mejor llueve esta tarde. — Maybe it’ll rain this afternoon.
• Por lo visto, se han mudado. — Apparently they’ve moved.