Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Qué canción estará tocando ese músico solitario? - What song could that lonely musician be playing?

¿Qué canción estará tocando ese músico solitario?

What song could that lonely musician be playing?

Breakdown of ¿Qué canción estará tocando ese músico solitario?

estar

to be (location/state)

tocar

to play (an instrument)

Questions & Answers about ¿Qué canción estará tocando ese músico solitario?

Why does the sentence use the future tense estará if we are wondering about right now?

In Spanish, the future tense is often used to express a guess, probability, or wondering about the present. Even though the musician is playing right now, using estará instead of está changes the tone from a simple fact to a wonder or a guess, similar to saying 'could be' in English.

Why is it estará tocando and not just tocará?

Because the action is happening right now in the background. Spanish uses the continuous form, which is estar plus the -ando ending, to emphasize an action in progress. So estará tocando gives us that 'could be playing' feeling, whereas tocará would just mean 'could play'.

Why use tocando for playing instead of a form of jugar?

In Spanish, there are two different verbs for 'playing'. Jugar is used for playing sports or games, while tocar, which literally means 'to touch', is used for playing musical instruments or songs.

Why is it ese músico and not aquel músico?

The word ese translates to 'that' and is used for things that are a short distance away. If the musician were far away in the distance, you would use aquel, which gives the feeling of 'that one over there'.