word of the day 4/5

Question

Hola! in the following example sentence for the word of the day 4/5/12:

No he escuchado de mi novio. Es probable que esté perdido.

why is "esté" with an accent on the e used instead of está?

muchas gracias, Mehrnaz

Answer 1

Hola Mehrnazahrar and welcome to the forum,

"Es probable" is an expression that leaves room for chance -- It's probable. .but not certain, so therefore it requires the subjunctive in Spanish. I haven't heard from my boyfriend. He's probably lost. This is not a fact and therefore is just a conjecture.

The third person subjunctive conjugation for estar is esté.

Subjunctive Present Subjunctive

Yo esté

tú estés

él, ellos usted esté

nosotros estemos

vosotros estéis

ellos, ellas, ustedes estén

Answer 2

muchas gracias! buena respuesta!