La medicina del futuro

The Future with Modal Structures

At B2 level, Italian uses several constructions to talk about the medical future with degrees of probability or certainty.

1. Simple future + probability adverb

probabilmente / forse / sicuramente + future tense

• Probabilmente sarà possibile curare questa malattia entro il 2040. — It will probably be possible to cure this disease by 2040.
• Forse sarà disponibile un vaccino universale. — Perhaps a universal vaccine will be available.

2. Conditional for cautious hypotheses

potrebbe eventualmente + infinitive

• La chirurgia robotica potrebbe eventualmente sostituire molti interventi tradizionali. — Robotic surgery could eventually replace many traditional procedures.
• I nanodispositivi potrebbero rilevare le malattie in fase precoce. — Nanodevices could detect diseases at an early stage.

3. To be destined / bound to

essere destinato a + infinitive

• La terapia genica è destinata a rivoluzionare la medicina. — Gene therapy is destined to revolutionise medicine.
• Questo trattamento è destinato a diventare lo standard. — This treatment is bound to become the standard.

4. It is likely that + subjunctive

è probabile che + congiuntivo

• È probabile che la diagnosi precoce salvi milioni di vite. — It is likely that early diagnosis will save millions of lives.
• È probabile che vengano approvati nuovi farmaci personalizzati. — It is likely that new personalised drugs will be approved.

B2 tip: è probabile che is followed by the present subjunctive for near-future events, and by the past subjunctive for hypothetical completed facts.