When to use it
Use it at a hotel, a restaurant or on the phone to ask how to cancel a booking.
The sentence in English — “How do I cancel a reservation?”
"How do I cancel a reservation?" asks about the way to do something. "How" opens the question, the auxiliary "do" comes before the subject "I", and the main verb "cancel" stays in its base form. "A reservation" is the object.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- cancel
- verbcancel · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "do I"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- reservation
- nounnoun; in British English also "booking"
The sentence in Portuguese — “Como faço para cancelar uma reserva?”
"Como faço para cancelar uma reserva?" literally says "how do I do to cancel a reservation". "Faço" is the first person of "fazer", "para" means "in order to", and "cancelar" is the infinitive. "Uma reserva" is feminine.
- Como
- adverbquestion adverb: "how"
- faço
- verbfazer · tense: present · mood: indicative · person: first · number: singular · "do I do"; "como faço para…" means "how do I…"
- para
- prepositionpreposition: "to", "in order to"
- cancelar
- verbcancelar · form: infinitive · "to cancel"
- uma
- determinerindefinite article, feminine: "a"
- reserva
- nounfeminine noun: "reservation", "booking"
English × Portuguese — What changes from one language to the other
English uses the auxiliary "do" only to build the question; it has no meaning of its own. Portuguese uses the real verb "fazer" in the fixed expression "como faço para…". A word-for-word translation of either sentence would sound strange in the other language.
Example conversation
— Como faço para cancelar uma reserva?
— How do I cancel a reservation?
— Você pode cancelar pelo site ou na recepção.
— You can cancel on the website or at the front desk.