Learn Spanish (Spain): Mi primo no contesta; estará distraído jugando al videojuego. - My cousin doesn't answer; he is probably distracted playing the video game.

In Spanish, the future tense is frequently used to make a guess or express probability about the present. By using estará, the speaker means "he is probably" or "I guess he is". This is often called the future of probability or the epistemic future.

How does estará distraído jugando fit the Future Continuous pattern from this lesson?

The Future Continuous is normally formed with the future of estar plus a gerund (like estará jugando - he is probably playing). Here, the adjective distraído (distracted) is simply placed in the middle to describe his state while he is doing the action.

Why is there an al after jugando? Couldn't we just say jugando el videojuego?

When referring to playing a sport, game, or video game, the verb jugar is almost always followed by the preposition a. Because videojuego is masculine singular (el videojuego), the a and el combine to make the contraction al.

Why is videojuego singular here? Isn't it more common to say someone is "playing video games" in the plural?

Spanish often uses the singular al videojuego (or a la consola) when focusing on the specific activity or the single game being played at that exact moment. Using the plural (a los videojuegos) is also correct, but the singular emphasizes the immediate, specific distraction.