When to use it
Use it at a bank, hotel desk or exchange counter to ask whether you can change foreign currency there.
The sentence in English — “Can I exchange money here?”
In “Can I exchange money here?” ‘Can’ moves before ‘I’ to ask permission or possibility. ‘money’ is uncountable and stays singular, and ‘here’ goes last.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- exchange
- verbexchange · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- money
- noununcountable noun
- here
- adverbadverb of place
The sentence in Bangla — “আমি কি এখানে টাকা বদলাতে পারি?”
In “আমি কি এখানে টাকা বদলাতে পারি?” ability is expressed by the verb পারা (can): ‘বদলাতে পারি’ (can change). Before পারা the main verb takes the ‘-তে’ form. ‘টাকা’ means money and is also the name of the currency.
- আমি
- pronounpronoun 'I'
- কি
- particlequestion particle
- এখানে
- adverbplace adverb 'here'
- টাকা
- nounnoun 'money', also the name of the currency
- বদলাতে
- verbবদলানো · form: infinitive (-তে) · 'to change'; the -তে form before পারা
- পারি
- verbপারা · tense: simple present · person: 1st · পারা 'can, be able'
English × Bangla — What changes from one language to the other
English puts ‘Can’ first, Bengali puts ‘পারি’ last. English ‘can’ is an auxiliary and the main verb stays bare; Bengali ‘পারা’ is a full verb and the main verb takes ‘-তে’.
Example conversation
— আমি কি এখানে টাকা বদলাতে পারি?
— Can I exchange money here?
— হ্যাঁ, তবে পাসপোর্ট লাগবে।
— Yes, but you'll need your passport.