“How do I cancel a reservation?” in Filipino

When to use it

Use it on the phone or at a counter when you need to cancel a hotel, train or restaurant booking.

The sentence in English: “How do I cancel a reservation?”

In “How do I cancel a reservation?” ‘How’ comes first and the question needs ‘do’; ‘cancel’ stays in its base form.

How

adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner

do

auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question

I

pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter

cancel

verbcancel · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "do I"

a

determinerindefinite article

reservation

nounnoun; in British English also "booking"

The sentence in Filipino: “Paano ko kakanselahin ang reserbasyon?”

In “Paano ko kakanselahin ang reserbasyon?” the verb is in object focus: ‘kakanselahin’ (-in), so the topic is ‘ang reserbasyon’ and the doer is ‘ko’ (by me), not ‘ako’. The repeated ‘ka’ marks a future action.

Paano

adverbquestion word 'how'

ko

pronoun'by me': the actor in object focus

kakanselahin

verbkansela · focus: object (-in) · aspect: contemplated (future) · future, with the reservation as focus

ang

prepositiontopic marker ang

reserbasyon

nounnoun 'reservation', from Spanish

What changes from one language to the other: English × Filipino

In English the doer is always the subject; Filipino object focus makes the reservation the topic. English needs ‘do’, Filipino uses the verb's aspect.

Example conversation