Wannan babbar asara ce.

to be

Breakdown of Wannan babbar asara ce.

• babba: big
• wannan: this
• asara: the loss

Questions & Answers about Wannan babbar asara ce.

What is the word-for-word breakdown of Wannan babbar asara ce?

A rough breakdown is:

• wannan = this
• babbar asara = a great/big loss
• ce = the feminine equational ending used in sentences like X is Y

So the literal structure is something like This great loss is.

Natural English rearranges that as This is a great loss.

What exactly does ce mean here?

ce is used in a sentence where one thing is being identified as another thing, like X is Y.

In English, we use is:

• This is a loss.

In Hausa, present-tense sentences of this type often do not use a normal verb to be. Instead, they use ne or ce at the end.

So in Wannan babbar asara ce, ce is doing the job that English is does in This is a great loss.

Why is it ce and not ne?

Because asara is a feminine noun in Hausa.

In this kind of sentence:

• ne is used with masculine
• ce is used with feminine

Since asara is feminine, the correct ending is ce.

Why is asara feminine? It does not refer to a female thing.