Phrase · 🕵️ Speculating about the past
¿Qué le habrá pasado a Julián? Nunca llega tarde.
I wonder what's happened to Julián. He's never late.
B2speculating pastAudio · coming soon
Why every word is where it is
¿Quépronounwhatle2object pronoun(to) himél · 3rd sing. · indirect objecthabrá1verbcan havehaber · future · 3rd sing.pasado1verbhappenedpasar · participle · past · masc. · sing.a2prepositiontoJuliánnounJulián?Nuncaadverbneverllegaverbarrivesllegar · present · 3rd sing.tardeadverblate.
- pasado → Qué: subj
- pasado → le: iobj
- le → Julián: ref
Word for word: “What will have happened to Julián? He never arrives late.”
Why it's built this way
The notes match the numbers above.
- 1Future perfect of probability in a question = "I wonder what has happened". It guesses about the recent past; it isn't a future. Future perfect and the conditional of probability →
- 2le … a Julián: the indirect object is doubled with le, which is normal in Spanish. Indirect object pronouns and doubling →
Variations
- ¿Qué le habrá pasado a Julián? Él nunca llega tarde.