When to use it
Use it at an airport, bank or exchange bureau when you need local shillings.
The sentence in English: “Can I exchange money here?”
In “Can I exchange money here?” ‘Can’ moves before ‘I’, and ‘here’ needs no preposition.
- Can
- auxiliary verbcan · tense: present · modal verb of ability or permission; it opens the question
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- exchange
- verbexchange · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "can"
- money
- noununcountable noun
- here
- adverbadverb of place
The sentence in Swahili: “Je, naweza kubadilisha pesa hapa?”
In “Je, naweza kubadilisha pesa hapa?” ‘naweza’ is the everyday short form of ‘ninaweza’ (I can). ‘kubadilisha’ (to exchange) comes from ‘badili’ (change) plus the causative ‘-isha’.
- Je
- particle'Je' marks a yes/no question
- naweza
- auxiliary verbweza · person: 1st singular · tense: present (-a-) · short form of ninaweza 'I can'
- kubadilisha
- verbbadilisha · form: infinitive (ku-) · kubadilisha pesa 'exchange money'
- pesa
- noun'money'
- hapa
- adverb'here'
What changes from one language to the other: English × Swahili
English inverts the order; Swahili keeps it and just adds ‘Je’. In both languages ‘here’ (hapa) needs no preposition.
Example conversation
— Je, naweza kubadilisha pesa hapa?
— Can I exchange money here?
— Ndiyo, una pesa za nchi gani?
— Yes, which currency do you have?