When to use it
Use it in a pharmacy to check whether a medicine is sold over the counter.
“Can I buy medicine without a prescription?” · The sentence in English
In “Can I buy medicine without a prescription?” ‘Can’ moves before ‘I’, and ‘without’ is one word before the noun.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- buy
- verbbuy · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- medicine
- noununcountable noun here, used in a general sense
- without
- prepositionpreposition
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- prescription
- nounnoun; a doctor's written order for medicine
“Zan iya sayen magani ba tare da takardar likita ba?” · The sentence in Hausa
In “Zan iya sayen magani ba tare da takardar likita ba?” ‘without’ wraps around the noun: ‘ba tare da’ before and ‘ba’ after ‘takardar likita’ (doctor's paper). The question is shown by intonation only.
- Zan
- auxiliary verbza · person: 1st singular · tense: future · za + n (I): I will
- iya
- verbiya · form: base · zan iya = I can
- sayen
- verbsaya · form: verbal noun + -n · saye 'buying' + linker -n
- magani
- noun'medicine'
- ba
- particlefirst ba of ba tare da… ba 'without'
- tare
- adverb'together'; ba tare da = without
- da
- preposition'with'
- takardar
- nountakarda 'paper' + linker -r
- likita
- noun'doctor'; takardar likita = prescription
- ba
- particlesecond ba closes ba tare da… ba
What changes from one language to the other · English × Hausa
English inverts; Hausa keeps the order, and ‘without’ is a frame around the noun.
Example conversation
— Zan iya sayen magani ba tare da takardar likita ba?
— Can I buy medicine without a prescription?
— Wannan ana sayarwa, maganin ƙwayoyin cuta kuma sai da takarda.
— This one yes, antibiotics no.