Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Terão interrogado a mulher na esquadra? - Could they have interrogated the woman at the police station?

Terão interrogado a mulher na esquadra?

Could they have interrogated the woman at the police station?

Breakdown of Terão interrogado a mulher na esquadra?

Questions & Answers about Terão interrogado a mulher na esquadra?

Why is the future perfect tense (terão interrogado) translated as "Could they have interrogated"?

This is the exact focus of your current lesson. In Portuguese, the Futuro Composto do Indicativo (future perfect) is frequently used to express uncertainty, a guess, or a supposition about a past event. To express "I wonder if they interrogated" or "Might they have interrogated", Portuguese literally asks "Will they have interrogated".

Could I use the conditional perfect (teriam interrogado) to mean "could they have interrogated"?

No, because teriam interrogado translates to "they would have interrogated". The conditional perfect is used for hypothetical past events that did not happen because a condition was not met. To express a guess about a real past possibility (meaning maybe they did, maybe they did not), you must use the future perfect terão interrogado.

There is no subject pronoun in this sentence. Who is doing the interrogating?

The auxiliary verb terão is in the third-person plural. Without an explicit subject like eles or elas, Portuguese often uses this form to refer to an unspecified group of people. Here, it functions like the general "they" in English, naturally implying the police or authorities.

I have seen "estação de polícia" before. Is esquadra the most common word for a police station?

Yes, in European Portuguese, esquadra (short for esquadra de polícia) is the standard, everyday term for a police station. A literal translation from English like estação de polícia sounds unnatural in Portugal.