Guba tana da haɗari.

to have

Breakdown of Guba tana da haɗari.

• haɗari: the danger
• ta: she/it
• guba: the poison

Questions & Answers about Guba tana da haɗari.

Why is tana used here?

Tana is the present-tense pronoun marker used with certain third-person singular nouns in Hausa. In this sentence, it agrees with guba and helps express is / has in an ongoing or general sense.

So Guba tana da haɗari literally works like:

• Guba = poison
• tana da = has / possesses
• haɗari = danger

A very natural English translation is Poison is dangerous.

What does da mean in this sentence?

Here, da means with / having. In Hausa, a common way to express to have is with a structure like:

• X yana da Y
• X tana da Y

So tana da haɗari literally means it has danger. English usually says it is dangerous, but Hausa often uses this has danger pattern instead.

Why doesn’t Hausa just use an adjective here?

Hausa often expresses qualities in more than one way. One common pattern is:

• tana da haɗari = it has danger → it is dangerous

This is very natural Hausa. English prefers an adjective, but Hausa may use a noun such as haɗari (danger) in a possession-like structure.

So even though the English meaning is Poison is dangerous, the Hausa grammar is closer to Poison has danger.

What exactly does mean here?