Breakdown of ¿A qué hora sería la erupción?
ser
to be
qué
what
la hora
the hour; the time (on the clock: what time is it?)
a
at (a time)
la erupción
the eruption
Questions & Answers about ¿A qué hora sería la erupción?
Why does the Spanish sentence use the conditional sería when the English translation says was?
This is the main point of the epistemic conditional. In Spanish, you can use the conditional tense to express a guess, doubt, or wonder about something that already happened in the past. While English uses extra words like 'I wonder what time it was' or 'What time could it have been?', Spanish simply uses the conditional form of the verb itself.
Why do we use ser (sería) here instead of estar?
When asking or telling the time in Spanish, you always use the verb ser. You probably remember asking ¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?) or saying Son las dos (It is two o'clock). Because we are wondering about the time the eruption happened, we stick with ser and put it in the conditional tense.
Could this sentence also mean 'What time WOULD the eruption be?'
Yes, it absolutely could! Without context, sería can act as a normal conditional for a hypothetical situation in the present or future. However, if the eruption already happened and people are looking at the aftermath, this exact same sentence is the natural way to wonder aloud about when it occurred.
Why do we need the A at the very beginning of the sentence?
In Spanish, if the answer to a question requires a preposition, that preposition must go at the very beginning of the question. Because you state the time of an event using a (like fue a las tres, meaning 'it was at three'), you must start the question with ¿A qué hora...? to ask what time it happened.
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