When to use it
Use it at a city rail station to ask the fare.
“How much does this metro ticket cost?” · The sentence in English
In “How much does this metro ticket cost?” ‘How much’ leads and ‘cost’ needs ‘does’.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- much
- adverb"how much" asks about price or quantity
- does
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · auxiliary that makes the question
- this
- determinerdemonstrative determiner
- metro
- nounnoun; it says what kind of ticket
- ticket
- nounnoun
- cost
- verbcost · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "does" the verb stays in its base form
“Tiketi hii ya metro inagharimu kiasi gani?” · The sentence in Swahili
In “Tiketi hii ya metro inagharimu kiasi gani?” ‘hii’ (this) follows the noun, the verb ‘inagharimu’ (it costs) takes ‘i-’ for ‘tiketi’, and ‘kiasi gani’ (how much) closes the question.
- Tiketi
- noun'ticket', N class
- hii
- determiner'this', after the noun, N class
- ya
- preposition'of'
- metro
- noun'metro'
- inagharimu
- verbgharimu · class: N · tense: present (-na-) · i- (for tiketi) + -na- + gharimu 'cost'
- kiasi
- noun'amount'
- gani
- determiner'which'; kiasi gani = how much
What changes from one language to the other · English × Swahili
English fronts the question and adds ‘does’; Swahili puts ‘kiasi gani’ last, with ‘hii’ after the noun.
Example conversation
— Tiketi hii ya metro inagharimu kiasi gani?
— How much does this metro ticket cost?
— Inategemea unakwenda umbali gani.
— It depends on how far you're going.