When to use it
Use it at a bank, hotel desk or exchange counter in India to ask whether you can change foreign currency there (women say ‘सकती हूँ’).
The sentence in English — “Can I exchange money here?”
In “Can I exchange money here?” the auxiliary ‘Can’ moves before ‘I’ to ask permission or possibility. ‘money’ is uncountable and stays singular, and ‘here’ goes at the end.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- exchange
- verbexchange · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- money
- noununcountable noun
- here
- adverbadverb of place
The sentence in Hindi — “क्या मैं यहाँ पैसे बदल सकता हूँ?”
In “क्या मैं यहाँ पैसे बदल सकता हूँ?” the verb is the stem ‘बदल’ (change) plus ‘सकना’ (can), ending with ‘हूँ’ (am) for ‘मैं’. ‘पैसे’ (money) is plural, as Hindi speakers say it. ‘सकता’ is masculine; a woman says ‘सकती हूँ’.
- क्या
- particleyes/no question particle
- मैं
- pronounpronoun 'I'
- यहाँ
- adverbplace adverb 'here'
- पैसे
- nounmasculine plural of पैसा 'money', always plural in speech
- बदल
- verbबदलना · form: stem · stem of बदलना 'to change, exchange'
- सकता
- auxiliary verbसकना · aspect: imperfective · gender: masculine · number: singular · 'can'; a woman says सकती
- हूँ
- auxiliary verbहोना · tense: present · person: 1st · हूँ with मैं
English × Hindi — What changes from one language to the other
English treats ‘money’ as singular, Hindi says ‘पैसे’ in the plural. English puts ‘Can’ first; Hindi puts ‘सकता हूँ’ last and shows the speaker's gender in it.
Example conversation
— क्या मैं यहाँ पैसे बदल सकता हूँ?
— Can I exchange money here?
— हाँ, पर आपको अपना पासपोर्ट दिखाना होगा।
— Yes, but you'll need your passport.