When to use it
Use it at a city rail station to ask the fare.
The sentence in English: “How much does this metro ticket cost?”
In “How much does this metro ticket cost?” ‘cost’ is a verb, so the question needs ‘does’.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- much
- adverb"how much" asks about price or quantity
- does
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · auxiliary that makes the question
- this
- determinerdemonstrative determiner
- metro
- nounnoun; it says what kind of ticket
- ticket
- nounnoun
- cost
- verbcost · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "does" the verb stays in its base form
The sentence in Hausa: “Nawa ne wannan tikitin metro?”
In “Nawa ne wannan tikitin metro?” there is no verb ‘cost’: ‘Nawa ne’ (how much is) is enough. ‘wannan’ (this) precedes the noun, as in English.
- Nawa
- adverb'how much'
- ne
- particlecopula 'is'
- wannan
- determiner'this'
- tikitin
- nountikiti 'ticket' + linker -n
- metro
- noun'metro'
What changes from one language to the other: English × Hausa
English needs two verbs, ‘does’ and ‘cost’; Hausa gets by with the copula ‘ne’ alone.
Example conversation
— Nawa ne wannan tikitin metro?
— How much does this metro ticket cost?
— Ya danganta da nisa.
— It depends on the distance.