Future used as the subjuctive

Question

posiblemente mi sitio favorito siempre será... yo creo que "Trafalgar Square".

I know this looks like a standard future tense, but it has the look and smell of the subjunctive. I understand that the future in certain situations can be used instead of the subjunctive.

Could someone review that for me.

Answer 1

"posiblemente mi sitio favorito siempre será Trafalgar Square." --> TS is my favourite place, and possibly it will continue being so.

"posiblemente mi sitio favorito (siempre ???) sea Trafalgar Square." ---> TS is, probably, my favourite place.

"posiblemente mi sitio favorito (siempre ???) sería Trafagar Square" ---> I don't really have a favourite place, but if I had one, TS would be a candidate for sure.

The sentence, the way is written, has to take indicative mood. If we rephrase it:

Yo creo que, posiblemente, mi sitio favorito siempre ........ TS.

And "yo creo" goes followed by indicative.... always. No matter how unlikely it may be, or how uncertain. If you believe something, you have to indicate it.

I understand that the future in certain situations can be used instead of the subjunctive.

Not quite. In all the examples I'm thinking of, this replacement changes the meaning of the sentence.

Answer 2

You can use subjunctive here "posiblemente mi sitio favorito de siempre sea Trafalgar Square."

Or "posiblemente mi sitio favorito siempre sería Trafalgar Square." In this case it is common to use the future será in place of the conditional sería.

ie: ¿Quién me estaría (estará) llamando a esta hora? (Who would be calling me at this hour?)