La Palabra del Día: "rico" - Why the future?

Question

I really like the Word of the Day feature! In the first model sentence, "¿Qué será lo que le da este sabor tan rico?" I don´t understand the use of the future tense of "ser". Please explain?

Answer 1

A few more examples I found:

Estarás cansado. You must be tired.

Serán las seis. It must be about 6 o'clock.

Estarán enojados. They must be mad.

¿Dónde estará mi hermano? I wonder where my brother is?

¿Qué hora será? I wonder what time it is?

Thanks, swampy, that helps, but....your last two examples seem to be similar kinds of open-ended wondering, while the first three are kind of like predictions - more specific conjectures. The future can be used in both ways, yes? - rickharned, Jan 24, 2013

Nice, Swampy! Using the future tense to express wonder or implication. - Jubilado, Jan 24, 2013

I think so. Future tense is used to indicate conjecture about a present state or situation. Future tense is used in a question to indicate speculation about a present action.From the book, Correct your Spanish Blunders. - swampy, Jan 24, 2013

Answer 2

I think the translation should be more:

What would it be, what could it be, that gives it this rich flavour? In those sort of sentences the Spanish sometimes uses the future. it is a different use from English.

Don't ask me why.

Thanks, annierats! If Spanish just sometimes uses the future for this kind of open-ended conjecture, that´s good enough for me! Might be an interesting topic for elaboration - "en que tipo de frases no usará el futuro?" - rickharned, Jan 24, 2013

Ah! I had not yet watched Paralee in Learn Spanish 4.5 - she covers it very well! - rickharned, Jan 24, 2013