When to use it
Use it when something you bought is faulty or a service was cancelled.
“How can I get a refund?” · The sentence in English
In “How can I get a refund?” ‘can’ expresses ability and ‘refund’ is a noun.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- get
- verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · here it means "obtain"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- refund
- nounnoun; money given back
“Ta yaya zan dawo da kuɗina?” · The sentence in Hausa
In “Ta yaya zan dawo da kuɗina?” there is no single word for refund: Hausa says ‘dawo da kuɗina’ (bring back my money), with ‘-na’ for ‘my’.
- Ta
- prepositionta yaya = how
- yaya
- adverb'how'
- zan
- auxiliary verbza · person: 1st singular · tense: future · zan dawo da = I will get back
- dawo
- verbdawo · form: base · 'come back'; dawo da = get back
- da
- prepositionwith dawo: return something
- kuɗina
- nounkuɗi 'money' + -na 'my'
What changes from one language to the other · English × Hausa
English uses the noun ‘refund’; Hausa a verb, ‘dawo da’, and attaches ‘my’ to the noun.
Example conversation
— Ta yaya zan dawo da kuɗina?
— How can I get a refund?
— Ku kawo rasiti zuwa teburin karɓar kuɗi.
— Bring the receipt to the counter.