Learn how to form and use the Spanish future tense to speculate about something in the present
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Would you miss out on a Spanish party like this?” Estoy acompañado de JP. JP hola ¿cómo estás? |
| JP: Hola Fernando, estoy super bien, ¿ tú? |
| Fernando: Bien muy bien. |
| JP: Now, Fernando, what are we going to hear in this lesson, today? |
| Fernando: En esta lección vamos a aprender acerca del tiempo futuro, de la probabilidad en el presente. La conversación toma lugar en la noche en la puerta de entrada de una casa y la conversación es entre Manuel y Gustavo y estara utilizando el registro informal. |
| JP: All right. Shall we listen to this conversation? |
| DIALOGUE |
| Manuel: ¿Será aquí la fiesta? Según el taxista ésta es la dirección que le dimos. ¿Tocamos? |
| Gustavo: Preguntando se llega a Roma; claro. Y si no es pero hay fiesta nos hacemos los invitados de alguien más. |
| Manuel: No no, hombre. Ni que tuvieramos quince años. Ya estamos maduros para andar haciendo ese tipo de cosas. |
| Gustavo: ¿Qué tiene? Mira, a esta edad tenemos más facilidad de armarnos una conversación chida. Neta. Aparte, traemos algo para la fiesta y eso siempre se aprecia. |
| Manuel: Obvio. Aun así, tocamos, vemos si es aquí, y si no, preguntamos si saben dónde viven Luis y Jimena. |
| Manuel: Is the party here? According to the taxi driver, this is the address that we told him. Do we knock? |
| Gustavo: Of course, you won't know unless you ask. And if it's not, but there's a party, we'll become somebody else's guests. |
| Manuel: No no, dude. It's not like we're fifteen years old. We're too mature to be going around doing that type of thing. |
| Gustavo: What's wrong with it? Look, at this age we're more skilled at starting a good conversation. For real. Besides, we're bringing something to the party, and that's always appreciated. |
| Manuel: Obviously. Even so, we'll knock, see whether it's here, and if not, we'll ask if they know where Luis and Jimena live. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Ok, Fernando, there’s a lot going on here. |
| Fernando: Definitivamente. Manuel y Gustavo van a una fiesta. Pero no están seguros de la dirección de la casa que están buscando. |
| JP: So, probably, they’ve never been to that house, right? They do have an address and the cab driver took them there, but they’re still not sure they’ve got the right place. Manuel is wondering if he should just knock. |
| Fernando: Sí y Gustavo le dice el refrán “Preguntando se llega a Roma”. |
| JP: Right. Then, he goes on to say that even if it’s not the right party, it’s still a party. |
| Fernando: Nos hacemos los invitados de alguien mas. |
| JP: Right. We’ll just be someone else’s guests. That sounds reasonable to me. |
| Fernando: Bueno esa idea no le apetece nada a Manuel. Dice que ya están maduros para andar haciendo ese tipo de cosas. |
| JP: Yes, they’re way too old to go around doing that kind of tomfoolery. But, it seems like Gustavo is into it. |
| Fernando: Sí sobre todo diciendo que a su edad ya tienen más facilidad de ararse una conversación chida. |
| JP: Ok, so they’re older now, so they’re more charming. |
| Fernando: Efectivamente y aparte traen algo para la fiesta. |
| JP: That’s always a plus. Anyway, Manuel says they’ll know and if it’s not Luis and Jimena, then they’ll just ask the people if they know where Luis and Jimena live. |
| Fernando: Me parece buena idea. |
| JP: Now, Manuel doesn’t seem to be as adventurous as Gustavo. |
| Fernando: A los amigos no los debes dejar esperando. |
| JP: Ok, Fernando, you’re so considering it. So, what are the vocabulary words we’re going to look at? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: la dirección |
| JP: “Direction”, “address”, “management” |
| Fernando: la di-re-ccion, la dirección. Tocar |
| JP: “To touch”, “to play an instrument”, “to knock” |
| Fernando: to-car, tocar |
| JP: All right. What’s next? |
| Fernando: Preguntando se llega a Roma |
| JP: “You never know unless you ask.” |
| Fernando: Pre-gun-tan-do se lle-ga a Ro-ma, preguntando se llega a Roma. Ni que. |
| JP: “It’s not as if” or “there’s no way” |
| Fernando: ni que, ni que |
| JP: And the last one? |
| Fernando: armar |
| JP: “To set up” or “to assemble” |
| Fernando: ar-mar, armar |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Ok, Fernando. Shall we talk about these vocabulary words? |
| Fernando: Sí, hablemos y empecemos con “la dirección”. |
| JP: Ok, “la dirección”. Now, dirección can definitely mean “direction” in English, but here in our dialogue it has another sense. |
| Fernando: Manuel dice que aquella casa es la dirección que le dieron al taxista. |
| JP: Ok. So, in this case “la dirección” is “the address”, right? |
| Fernando: Sí. Sí, exacto. La siguiente palabra es tocar. |
| JP: Ok. “Tocar”, now this verb can also mean many things. Now, how did we hear it in the dialogue? |
| Fernando: Esque estan a la entrada de una casa y quieren entrar entonces dicen “¿Tocamos?” |
| JP: Ok, so here we’re obviously talking about “tocar la puerta”. In this case, [tocar] means “to knock”. Tocar. |
| Fernando: Tocar. El siguiente, un refrán. Tenemos un refrán. |
| JP: “Un refrán”, let’s hear it. |
| Fernando: Preguntando se llega a Roma |
| JP: Preguntando se llega a Roma. Ok, this is a “refrán”, it’s a saying, that Gustavo says after Manuel asks “¿tocamos? – “Should we knock?” |
| Fernando: Preguntando se llega a Roma, es decir “hay que preguntar”. |
| JP: Sure, you won’t find out unless you ask, right? Now, literally, “Preguntando se llega a Roma” this means “One arrives in Rome by asking.” Now, I’m sure there’s a great story behind why Latino say this expression, but for our purposes, we’re just going to tell you that it means “You got to ask.”, right? No harm in asking. |
| Fernando: Sí y la última palabra en nuestra lista hoy es “armar”. |
| JP: Ok. Armar. Now, this is another verb that can have a couple of meanings. How did we hear it in the conversation? |
| Fernando: “Podemos armar una conversación chida.” |
| JP: Ok, now “armar” can mean “to arm”, like to supply weapons; it can also mean “to assemble”, like if you buy furniture in Ikea, but here it’s “armar una conversación”. How do we even say that in English? |
| Fernando: Se puede decir “strike up a conversation”? |
| JP: Oh, yes. “To strike up a conversation”. So, “armar una conversación chida” – “strike up a conversation”. Armar. |
| Fernando: Y por último tenemos “ni que”. |
| JP: Ni que. Now this is kind of like a conjunction, it starts off a clause, right? “Ni que”. And it usually signals something preposterous. Now, how did we hear it in the dialogue? |
| Fernando: Uno de ellos dice “Ni que tuviéramos quince años”. |
| JP: Ok. “Ni que tuviéramos quince años” – “It’s not as if we’re 15 years old.”, right? Now, when we talk about age, it’s “tener quince años” – “to be 15 years old”. But, you see that after “ni que”, we followed it with the Imperfect Subjunctive, right? “Ni que tuviéramos quince años” |
| Fernando: Así es. Perfecto, ahora la sección de gramática. ¿De qué vamos a hablar JP? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: Well, there are a lot of great things that we could talk about in this lesson, but we only have time to talk about one of them. The rest we can talk about in the comment section of this lesson. In any case, let’s look at the Future Tense as a speculative present or a Present of Probability. |
| Fernando: Adelante. |
| JP: Ok, so we all know about the Future Tense in Spanish, like compraré, comprarás, comprará etc. And the primary function of the future is to talk about future time. So, if I say “comprarán” it means “they shall buy”. |
| Fernando: Excellente. |
| JP: Now, there’s also a secondary function of the Future Tense, and that is to speculate about present actions. So, this function, it is the Future Tense, but we’re not talking about the future at all. Instead, we’re speculating on the Present. So, we said “comprarán” means “they shall eat”, but it can also mean, secondarily, “they’re probably eating now”. |
| Fernando: Sí por ejemplo, si te pregunto “¿Dónde están mis hermanos?” Tú me puedes responder: “Nose, estarán comprando las bebidas.” |
| JP: Ok. “estarán comprando las bebidas” – “they’re probably buying something to drink”. Now, I can only say that if we were speculating. If I knew for a fact that they were at the store loading up the shopping cart with two little bottles, I would say, I would say “compran bebidas” or “están comprando bebidas” in the Present Tense. But, if I’m not sure and I want to speculate, I’d use the Future Tense: “ estarán comprando las bebidas”. Now, in the dialogue, Manuel was wondering “Is this where the party is at?” |
| Fernando: Dice, “¿Será aquí la fiesta?” |
| JP: So, in this case, he’s asking Gustavo to speculate because he knows Gustavo doesn’t know for a fact, either, if this is the right place or not. So, he uses the Future Tense of “ser” which is “será”. |
| Fernando: Correcto. También podría haber preguntado “¿Es aquí la fiesta?” |
| JP: He could have, he could’ve used the Present Tense, but that would indicate he was expecting a factual answer from Gustavo. And Gustavo doesn’t know anything. He’s just as clueless as Manuel. |
| Fernando: Ahora JP creo que ya es hora de terminar. |
Outro |
| JP: Ok, cool. For now I guess it’s time to go. So, ¡hasta luego! |
| Fernando: ¡Adios! |
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