# Future of probability: serán las cinco

> id: conjugation.future.probability · category: conjugation · depth: standard · levels: B1, B2 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** Spanish uses the future tense to guess about the present: ¿Qué hora será? Serán las cinco — 'It must be around five.'

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.
- Tendrá unos cuarenta años. — He must be about forty.
- Estarán de viaje; no contestan. — They're probably traveling; they're not answering.

Related: conjugation.future.regular, conjugation.conditional.regular

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