Breakdown of Sin embargo, estará sosteniendo el aire porque no hay nada.
no
no, not
estar
to be (location/state)
haber
to be (there is / there are)
porque
because
nada
nothing
sin embargo
however
el aire
air
sostener
to hold (support weight)
Questions & Answers about Sin embargo, estará sosteniendo el aire porque no hay nada.
Why is the future tense estará used here if the translation says "he must be holding" right now?
In Spanish, the future tense is often used to express a guess or probability about the present. By combining the future of estar (estará) with the gerund sosteniendo, we get the future progressive. Instead of meaning an action will happen in the future, it translates to "he must be holding" or "he is probably holding" right now.
Why use sosteniendo instead of other verbs for "holding" like agarrando or manteniendo?
Could I just say sostendrá el aire instead of estará sosteniendo to mean the same thing?
You could, but it changes the nuance slightly. Using the simple future for conjecture (sostendrá) would mean "he must hold" or "he probably holds". Using the progressive form estará sosteniendo specifically emphasizes that the suspected action is unfolding at this exact moment.
How do we know who is holding the air if there is no subject pronoun before estará?
The conjugation estará covers he, she, it, or the formal you (usted). Because Spanish frequently drops subject pronouns, the listener relies on the surrounding context. The English translation assumes "he" here, but without broader context, it could just as easily be "she must be holding".
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