Breakdown of O inspetor terá descoberto a verdade?
ter
to have
a verdade
the truth
descobrir
to discover
o inspetor
the inspector
Questions & Answers about O inspetor terá descoberto a verdade?
Why does the Portuguese sentence use the future perfect (terá descoberto) to ask "Could the inspector have discovered"?
This is a very common way to express probability, uncertainty, or supposition about a past event. Instead of using a literal translation for "could", Portuguese uses the Futuro Composto do Indicativo (ter in the future tense + past participle) to convey the idea of "I wonder if..." or "Is it possible that...".
Could this sentence also refer to the actual future, like "Will the inspector have discovered the truth by tomorrow?"
Why is the past participle descoberto instead of following the regular "-ido" pattern for "-ir" verbs?
Descobrir (to discover) has an entirely irregular past participle, just like its root verb cobrir (to cover), which becomes coberto. There is no regular form like "descobrido" in Portuguese, so you must always use descoberto.
I've seen the word for inspector spelled with a "c" before. Is inspetor the correct spelling in European Portuguese?
Yes, inspetor is the correct modern spelling. Under the 1990 Orthographic Agreement, silent consonants were dropped from Portuguese spelling. Since the "c" is not pronounced in Portugal, it was removed from the word.
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