Breakdown of ¿Estará aterrizando la nave en el bosque?
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
estar
to be (location/state)
el bosque
the forest
aterrizar
to land
la nave
the ship
Questions & Answers about ¿Estará aterrizando la nave en el bosque?
Why are we using the future tense (estará) when asking about something happening right now?
This is the epistemic future you are learning in this lesson. In Spanish, you can use the future tense to express a guess, doubt, or wonder about the present. Here, ¿Estará...? translates best to "Could it be...?" or "I wonder if it is...?" rather than "Will it be...?".
Is estará aterrizando the future continuous tense?
Yes! It is formed with the future tense of estar plus the gerund (aterrizando). Because we are using it to guess about the present, the whole phrase means "Could it be landing (right now)?" instead of "Will it be landing (in the future)?".
Why is the subject (la nave) placed after the verbs instead of at the beginning?
Does la nave mean a boat or a spaceship?
It can refer to either! Nave is a broad word for a vessel or craft. In science fiction contexts, it usually means spaceship (short for nave espacial), but it can also refer to large seafaring ships, though barco is the more common word for an ordinary boat.
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