Example Sentences on the Quiz

Question

Hi - I understand the basic gist of this lesson, and I see in other responses the note about another part of the sentence indicating the uncertainty with the future tense. However, on the short 2 question quiz, the first sentence I'm being given is "El cine nuevo abrirá el mes que viene"; nothing in this sentence indicates the uncertainty in the English translation - "The new cinema will probably open next month".  In a case like this, would it be incorrect/stilted to use probablemente/an equivalent?

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola Sophia V.
Thanks for your thoughtful question—you're absolutely right to notice this nuance!
In Spanish, the simple future tense (El Futuro Simple) can express both future events and probability or conjecture, depending on context.
In the sentence "El cine nuevo abrirá el mes que viene", it’s grammatically correct and natural in Spanish even without an explicit marker of uncertainty, because Spanish often relies on tense alone to convey that nuance—something that’s more explicit in English.
So while the English translation “The new cinema will probably open next month” includes the adverb probably to suggest uncertainty, the Spanish future tense abrirá can imply that same uncertainty on its own, particularly in the right context (e.g. no official date confirmed).
That said, your intuition is also spot-on: adding “probablemente”, “seguramente”, or “quizás” would certainly reinforce the uncertainty and is perfectly acceptable.
For example:
Probablemente el cine nuevo abrirá el mes que viene.
El cine nuevo abrirá el mes que viene, seguramente.
These versions are neither incorrect nor stilted—just more explicit. So, while it’s not necessary to use an adverb to convey probability when using the future tense in Spanish, doing so is a great stylistic choice when you want to be clearer or emphasize the uncertainty.
Hope that helps clarify things!
Saludos
Silvia