“How do you get to the central station from here?” in Swahili

When to use it

Use it to ask the way to the main bus or train station in town.

The sentence in English (“How do you get to the central station from here?”)

In “How do you get to the central station from here?” ‘you’ is generic and the question needs ‘do’.

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

get

verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · "get to" means "arrive at"

to

prepositionpreposition of direction; "get to" means "arrive at"

the

determinerdefinite article

central

adjectiveadjective

station

nounnoun

from

prepositionpreposition

here

adverbadverb of place

The sentence in Swahili (“Nitafikaje kituo kikuu kutoka hapa?”)

In “Nitafikaje kituo kikuu kutoka hapa?” one word, ‘Nitafikaje’, holds I, the future ‘-ta-’, ‘fika’ (arrive) and the question ‘-je’ (how). ‘kikuu’ (main) agrees with ‘kituo’ (station).

Nitafikaje

verbfika · person: 1st singular · tense: future (-ta-) · ni- + -ta- (future) + fika 'arrive' + -je 'how'

kituo

noun'station'

kikuu

adjective'main'; ki- agrees with kituo

kutoka

preposition'from'

hapa

adverb'here'

What changes from one language to the other (English × Swahili)

English needs six words for ‘How do you get to the’; Swahili one verb, phrased about ‘I’.

Example conversation