En la escuela -- please correct spanish
Sabrían que hablo en poco del español, sin embargo quiero dar a se mi testimonio respecto a estas cosas. He leído einforme de Carlos, y sé no está cuento porque yo fui aca. Miré totas cosas. Anoche cosas han puesto fea en la clase cuando Carlos dijo a maestro que no quiera la tarea terminar, (déjame terminar de hablar, por favor) El maestro estuvo muy enojado y han discutido fuerte y todo el mundo ha hecho ruido. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As you all know I speak a little spanish, however I want to give you my testimony regarding these events. I have read the report given by carlos, and know that this is no fairytale because I was there. I saw everything. Last night things began to become ugly in class when carlos said to the teacher that he did not want to complete the homework. (Please let me finish). The teacher became very angry and they had a forceful discussion and everyone became very noisy.
8 Answers
English uses simialr statements, though as you say, they aren't really expressing doubt or lack thereof:
As you probably know...
You undoubtedly know that...
No doubt you know that ...
As you may be aware...
As some of you may already know...
I suppose it's more polite that addressing your audience as if they were totally ignorant (even if they are on your topic).
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The "suppositional future" ? The future tense can be used to indicate likelihood or probability. The translation will depend on the context; in question form, it can indicate uncertainty. Serán las nueve, it's probably 9 o'clock. Tendrás hambre, you must be hungry. ¿Qué horas serán? I wonder what time it is. Estará enferma, she's most likely sick.
These funny labels... hehe. The future tense is not a tense to talk about the future, as many people think, but to make suppositions or predictions about things about for which we don't have all the information yet. If you say "Serán las 9", you are guessing that if you went somewhere to check a clock, that's the sort of time you are likely to read. If you say "Mañana serán las 9 cuando lleguemos", you are guessing that by the moment stated in the sentence (when we arrive), the time will be about 9 o'clock. If you say "Pedro se graduará", you are making a supposition about Pedro's graduation, but obviously, these things take time, so we assume that this prediction will take place in the future (normally years for graduations). If you say "¿Dónde está Lucía? Estará en casa", you are guessing that if someone went to her house to check, she'll probably be there (that doesn't mean that anyone is going to check it), but being in a house, unlike graduating, is not something that takes years, plus the question is about her whereabouts right now, so we assume that the person is not talking about the future. See? Context and pragmatics determine the right interpretation of the future tense, which is about suppositions, and not "the tense" that you have to use to talk future events (remember that the present and the periphrasis "Voy a" are used even more often to talk about the future).
Why is the future tense used here instead of the present tense. Is it to express probability (rather than certainty)?
I think that I found my answer:
The "suppositional future" ? The future tense can be used to indicate likelihood or probability. The translation will depend on the context; in question form, it can indicate uncertainty. Serán las nueve, it's probably 9 o'clock. Tendrás hambre, you must be hungry. ¿Qué horas serán? I wonder what time it is. Estará enferma, she's most likely sick.
Hola Quentin: En general esta es la idea, ese tipo de futuro se usa muchas veces para indicar duda.
No lo considero así en este caso. Es una fórmula muy común sobre todo entre políticos para empezar una conferencia o algo así y podría ser igualmente: como saben....pero usar el futuro me supongo que se considera más cortés.
Seguro que hay alguna regla y seguro que lazarus la sabrá 
De todas formas, el asunto del futuro muchas veces depende del contexto.
Si digo:
¿Dónde está Pedro?
Vendrá mañana.
Podemos pensar que Pedro viene mañana como era de esperar.
pero si lo cambio ligeramente:
¿Pero dónde está Pedro? (with an air of impatience)
Vendrá mañana...(y yo qué sé)
Lazarus, thank you very much for your corrections. They are very helpful.
Yep. I was looking at a transcript of a meeting. The presenter said "As you all know we are meeting to discuss....."(in Spanish, of course) and he used the future tense. Everybody knew the topic of discussion so I suspect it is somewhat like the polite form "I want" vs "I would like".
Actually I am going to give a speech similar to this, and wanted to try it out beforehand. It is somewhat of an apology in advance for any mistakes I may make in my speech.
Como sabrán,....
Why is the future tense used here instead of the present tense. Is it to express probability (rather than certainty)?
I think that I found my answer:
The "suppositional future" ? The future tense can be used to indicate likelihood or probability. The translation will depend on the context; in question form, it can indicate uncertainty. Serán las nueve, it's probably 9 o'clock. Tendrás hambre, you must be hungry. ¿Qué horas serán? I wonder what time it is. Estará enferma, she's most likely sick.
Como sabrán, hablo un poco de español, sin embargo quiero dar [del]a se[/del] mi testimonio respecto a estas cosas. He leído el informe de Carlos, y sé que no es un cuento porque yo estaba allí. Lo vi todo. Anoche las cosas se pusieron feas en la clase cuando Carlos le dijo a maestro que no quería terminar la tarea, (déjame terminar de hablar, por favor) El maestro estuvo muy enojado y discutieron fuerte y todo el mundo hizo ruido. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As you all know I speak a little spanish, however I want to give you my testimony regarding these events. I have read the report given by carlos, and know that this is no fairytale because I was there. I saw everything. Last night things began to become ugly in class when carlos said to the teacher that he did not want to complete the homework. (Please let me finish). The teacher became very angry and they had a forceful discussion and everyone became very noisy.
¡Hola Cdowis y bienvenido a los foros de español e inglés!
