When to use it
Use it at a chemist's when you need something for a headache or cold without seeing a doctor.
“Can I buy medicine without a prescription?” — The sentence in English
In “Can I buy medicine without a prescription?” ‘I’ is the subject and ‘without’ precedes its noun.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- buy
- verbbuy · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- medicine
- noununcountable noun here, used in a general sense
- without
- prepositionpreposition
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- prescription
- nounnoun; a doctor's written order for medicine
“ਕੀ ਡਾਕਟਰ ਦੀ ਪਰਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਦਵਾਈ ਮਿਲ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ?” — The sentence in Punjabi
In “ਕੀ ਡਾਕਟਰ ਦੀ ਪਰਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਦਵਾਈ ਮਿਲ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ?” the subject is ‘ਦਵਾਈ’ (medicine), not ‘I’, so the verb never shows the speaker's gender. ‘ਸਕਦੀ’ is feminine because ‘ਦਵਾਈ’ is feminine, and ‘ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ’ (without) follows its noun.
- ਕੀ
- particlequestion marker; answer is yes or no
- ਡਾਕਟਰ
- noun'doctor'
- ਦੀ
- preposition'of', feminine to agree with ਪਰਚੀ
- ਪਰਚੀ
- nounfeminine 'slip'; ਡਾਕਟਰ ਦੀ ਪਰਚੀ = prescription
- ਤੋਂ
- prepositionpart of ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ 'without'
- ਬਿਨਾਂ
- preposition'without', after the noun
- ਦਵਾਈ
- nounfeminine 'medicine'
- ਮਿਲ
- verbਮਿਲਣਾ · form: stem · 'be obtained'; ਦਵਾਈ is its subject
- ਸਕਦੀ
- auxiliary verbਸਕਣਾ · form: feminine singular · feminine, agreeing with ਦਵਾਈ
- ਹੈ
- auxiliary verbਹੋਣਾ · tense: present · number: singular · ਹੈ closing the question
English × Punjabi: What changes from one language to the other
English says ‘I buy’; Punjabi says ‘can medicine be had’, and places ‘without’ after the noun.
Example conversation
— ਕੀ ਡਾਕਟਰ ਦੀ ਪਰਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਦਵਾਈ ਮਿਲ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ?
— Can I buy medicine without a prescription?
— ਇਸ ਦਵਾਈ ਲਈ ਹਾਂ, ਪਰ ਐਂਟੀਬਾਇਓਟਿਕ ਲਈ ਨਹੀਂ।
— For this one, yes; for antibiotics, no.