When to use it
Use it at a metro station, for example in Lahore, to ask the fare.
The sentence in English: “How much does this metro ticket cost?”
In “How much does this metro ticket cost?” ‘cost’ is a verb, so the question 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
The sentence in Urdu: “اس میٹرو ٹکٹ کی قیمت کتنی ہے؟”
In “اس میٹرو ٹکٹ کی قیمت کتنی ہے؟” there is no verb ‘to cost’: Urdu says ‘how much is the price of this metro ticket’. ‘کی’ and ‘کتنی’ are feminine because ‘قیمت’ (price) is feminine, and ‘یہ’ becomes ‘اس’ before the postposition.
- اس
- pronounoblique of یہ 'this', before کی
- میٹرو
- nounnoun 'metro', describing ٹکٹ
- ٹکٹ
- nounmasculine noun 'ticket'
- کی
- prepositionpossessive کی, feminine for قیمت
- قیمت
- nounfeminine noun 'price'
- کتنی
- adjective'how much', feminine for قیمت
- ہے
- auxiliary verbہونا · tense: present · present
What changes from one language to the other: English × Urdu
English asks with a verb; Urdu with the noun ‘قیمت’ and ‘ہے’, and Urdu ‘کتنی’ changes with gender.
Example conversation
— اس میٹرو ٹکٹ کی قیمت کتنی ہے؟
— How much does this metro ticket cost?
— یہ اس پر منحصر ہے کہ آپ کتنی دور جا رہے ہیں۔
— It depends on how far you travel.