“How do I make a complaint at the hotel?” in Hausa

When to use it

Use it when something in your hotel room is broken and you want to know whom to tell.

The sentence in English (“How do I make a complaint at the hotel?”)

In “How do I make a complaint at the hotel?” ‘make a complaint’ is verb plus noun.

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

make

verbmake · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · "make an appointment" and "make a complaint" are fixed expressions

a

determinerindefinite article

complaint

nounnoun

at

prepositionpreposition of place

the

determinerdefinite article

hotel

nounnoun

The sentence in Hausa (“Ta yaya zan kai ƙara ga otal ɗin?”)

In “Ta yaya zan kai ƙara ga otal ɗin?” you ‘take’ (kai) a complaint (ƙara), and ‘ɗin’ after ‘otal’ is ‘the’, placed after the noun.

Ta

prepositionta yaya = how

yaya

adverb'how'

zan

auxiliary verbza · person: 1st singular · tense: future · zan kai = I will take

kai

verbkai · form: base · 'take'; kai ƙara = complain

ƙara

noun'complaint'

ga

preposition'to'

otal

noun'hotel'

ɗin

determiner'the', after the noun

What changes from one language to the other (English × Hausa)

English ‘makes’ a complaint, Hausa ‘takes’ one, and ‘the’ follows the noun.

Example conversation