Breakdown of Ele estaria sem bateria no telemóvel?
ele
he
o telemóvel
the mobile phone
estar
to be (temporary / location)
no
in the / on the / at the (m, f, pl forms: na, nos, nas)
sem
without
a bateria
the battery
Questions & Answers about Ele estaria sem bateria no telemóvel?
Why use the conditional estaria here instead of the past tense estava?
In this sentence, the conditional isn't being used to mean 'would be'. This is the epistemic use of the conditional, which expresses an assumption, doubt, or probability about the past. Instead of asking a direct question about a known fact (Ele estava... = Was he...), the speaker is making a speculative guess about the past (Ele estaria... = Was he probably...).
What would happen to the meaning if I used the future tense estará instead?
Changing it to the future tense changes the timeframe of your assumption. Ele estará sem bateria no telemóvel? uses the epistemic future to guess about the present moment ('Is he probably out of battery right now?'). The conditional estaria is used because the speaker is guessing about a past situation.
Could I say não teria bateria instead of estaria sem bateria?
Why does the sentence use no telemóvel (in/on the phone) instead of do telemóvel (of the phone)?
While you could technically talk about the battery of the phone (a bateria do telemóvel), this sentence structures it around the person's state. He was without battery on his device. In Portuguese, the preposition em (which combines with o to make no) is the standard way to locate this state on a specific device.
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