Breakdown of A testemunha terá inventado o álibi falso?
ter
to have
a testemunha
the witness
inventar
to invent
falso
false
o álibi
the alibi
Questions & Answers about A testemunha terá inventado o álibi falso?
Why does terá inventado translate to "Could... have invented" instead of "Will have invented"?
In Portuguese, the Futuro Composto do Indicativo (Future Perfect) is frequently used to express uncertainty, probability, or a guess about something that happened in the past. While it literally translates to "will have invented", in a question like this, it implies "Could they have invented...?" or "I wonder if they invented...".
Does a testemunha mean the witness is definitely a woman?
Not necessarily. Testemunha is an epicene noun, meaning it only has one grammatical gender (feminine) regardless of the actual gender of the person. You always say a testemunha and use feminine adjectives to match it, even if the witness is a man.
Could I express this same doubt using a different verb tense?
Yes. If you want to use a more literal translation of "Could... have", you can use the conditional of poder plus the compound infinitive: A testemunha poderia ter inventado o álibi falso? However, using the Future Perfect (terá inventado) is a very natural and concise way native speakers express past speculation.
Why doesn't the sentence start with a question word like "Será que"?
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