When to use it
Use it when you ask a teacher or colleague how a formal letter is written in another language.
The sentence in English — “How do you write a formal letter in French?”
In “How do you write a formal letter in French?” ‘you’ is generic and the question needs ‘do’. ‘in French’ comes last, and the names of languages always take a capital letter.
- 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
- write
- verbwrite · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "do you"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- formal
- adjectiveadjective
- letter
- nounnoun
- in
- prepositionpreposition
- French
- nounnoun; the name of the language, always capitalised
The sentence in Hindi — “फ़्रेंच में औपचारिक पत्र कैसे लिखते हैं?”
In “फ़्रेंच में औपचारिक पत्र कैसे लिखते हैं?” there is no subject: the plural ‘लिखते हैं’ (write) states the general way of doing it. ‘फ़्रेंच में’ (in French) opens the sentence, and ‘औपचारिक पत्र’ (formal letter) is the object before ‘कैसे’ (how).
- फ़्रेंच
- nounnoun 'French' (the language)
- में
- prepositionpostposition 'in' (in a language)
- औपचारिक
- adjectiveadjective 'formal'
- पत्र
- nounmasculine noun 'letter'
- कैसे
- adverbquestion adverb 'how'
- लिखते
- verbलिखना · aspect: imperfective (general) · number: plural · subject: unstated, people in general · plural with no subject: the general way of writing
- हैं
- auxiliary verbहोना · tense: present · number: plural · plural for a general statement
English × Hindi — What changes from one language to the other
Hindi puts the language first, ‘फ़्रेंच में’; English puts ‘in French’ last. English capitalises ‘French’, while Devanagari has no capital letters.
Example conversation
— फ़्रेंच में औपचारिक पत्र कैसे लिखते हैं?
— How do you write a formal letter in French?
— विनम्र अभिवादन से शुरू करें और पत्र छोटा रखें।
— Start with a polite greeting and keep it short.