When to use it
Use it when you arrive somewhere in India and want to know the usual way to get a taxi.
The sentence in English: “How do you get a taxi here?”
In “How do you get a taxi here?” the ‘you’ is generic (anyone), ‘get a taxi’ means ‘find or catch a taxi’, and the question needs ‘do’.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun used for people in general
- get
- verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · here it means "take" or "find"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- taxi
- nounnoun
- here
- adverbadverb of place
The sentence in Hindi: “यहाँ टैक्सी कैसे मिलती है?”
In “यहाँ टैक्सी कैसे मिलती है?” the verb मिलना (to be found) has ‘टैक्सी’ (taxi, feminine) as its subject, so it is ‘मिलती है’. The sentence asks about the usual way, not about any particular person.
- यहाँ
- adverbplace adverb 'here'
- टैक्सी
- nounfeminine noun 'taxi'; it makes मिलती feminine
- कैसे
- adverbquestion adverb 'how'
- मिलती
- verbमिलना · aspect: imperfective (general) · gender: feminine · number: singular · 'how is a taxi found here' in general
- है
- auxiliary verbहोना · tense: present · present
What changes from one language to the other: English × Hindi
English makes the person the subject (‘you get’); Hindi makes the taxi the subject (‘a taxi is found’), so the Hindi verb is feminine like ‘टैक्सी’.
Example conversation
— यहाँ टैक्सी कैसे मिलती है?
— How do you get a taxi here?
— ज़्यादातर लोग ऐप से बुक करते हैं।
— Most people book one with an app.