When to use it
Use it when you must write to a French-speaking office and want the proper format.
The sentence in English: “How do you write a formal letter in French?”
In “How do you write a formal letter in French?” generic ‘you’ and ‘do’ are needed.
- 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
- write
- verbwrite · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "do you"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- formal
- adjectiveadjective
- letter
- nounnoun
- in
- prepositionpreposition
- French
- nounnoun; the name of the language, always capitalised
The sentence in Swahili: “Barua rasmi huandikwaje kwa Kifaransa?”
In “Barua rasmi huandikwaje kwa Kifaransa?” no person is named: the verb is passive (‘-wa’) and habitual (‘hu-’), asking how a letter is usually written, with ‘-je’ (how). Language names start with ‘Ki-’: Kifaransa (French).
- Barua
- noun'letter'
- rasmi
- adjective'formal', invariable
- huandikwaje
- verbandika · tense: habitual (hu-) · voice: passive (-wa) · hu- + andika 'write' + -wa (passive) + -je 'how'
- kwa
- preposition'in (a language)'
- Kifaransa
- proper noun'French'; Ki- marks a language
What changes from one language to the other: English × Swahili
English asks how ‘you’ write; Swahili asks how the letter ‘is written’.
Example conversation
— Barua rasmi huandikwaje kwa Kifaransa?
— How do you write a formal letter in French?
— Anza na “Madame, Monsieur” na uiandike kwa ufupi.
— Start with “Madame, Monsieur” and keep it short.