When to use it
Use it at a metro station in India to ask the fare of a ticket.
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’ (third person singular), and ‘cost’ stays in its base form at the end.
- 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 Hindi (“इस मेट्रो टिकट की कीमत कितनी है?”)
In “इस मेट्रो टिकट की कीमत कितनी है?” there is no verb ‘to cost’: Hindi says ‘how much is the price of this metro ticket’. ‘की’ and ‘कितनी’ are feminine because ‘कीमत’ (price) is feminine, and ‘यह’ (this) becomes ‘इस’ before the postposition.
- इस
- pronounoblique of यह 'this', before की
- मेट्रो
- nounnoun 'metro', describing टिकट
- टिकट
- nounmasculine noun 'ticket'
- की
- prepositionpossessive की, feminine for कीमत
- कीमत
- nounfeminine noun 'price'
- कितनी
- adjectivequestion word 'how much', feminine to match कीमत
- है
- auxiliary verbहोना · tense: present · present
What changes from one language to the other (English × Hindi)
English asks with a verb, ‘does … cost’; Hindi uses the noun ‘कीमत’ and ‘है’. Hindi ‘कितनी’ changes with the gender of the noun; English ‘how much’ never changes.
Example conversation
— इस मेट्रो टिकट की कीमत कितनी है?
— How much does this metro ticket cost?
— यह इस पर निर्भर करता है कि आप कितनी दूर जा रहे हैं।
— It depends on how far you travel.