Question 1

Since this lesson focuses on using the future progressive for ongoing conjectures, how would we change this sentence to guess that the mime is currently entertaining the audience?

Accepted Answer

You would say: El mimo estará entreteniendo al público. Using the future tense of estar (estará) plus a gerund (entreteniendo) expresses a guess or assumption about an action happening right now, translating roughly to "The mime must be entertaining the audience."

Question 2

Why use Hay que instead of Tiene que in the first clause?

Accepted Answer

Hay que is used for impersonal obligations, translating to "one must" or "it is necessary to." It does not specify who needs to do the entertaining. If you wanted to say a specific person has to do it, you would use a conjugated form of tener que, like Él tiene que entretener al público.

Question 3

Why is there an al before público?

Accepted Answer

The noun público is the direct object of the verb entretener. Even though it is a collective noun, it refers to people, so it requires the personal a. When the preposition a combines with the masculine article el, it forms the mandatory contraction al.

Question 4

What would happen to the meaning if we used es instead of está with cansado?

Accepted Answer

Using the verb estar as in está cansado describes the mime's current physical state, meaning he feels tired. If you used the verb ser and said es cansado, it would describe his innate characteristics, meaning the mime himself is a tiring or exhausting person to be around!

Hay que entretener al público, pero el mimo está cansado.

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