Breakdown of Malami yana kallon hanya, ni kuwa ina duba sigina.
ni
I
malami
the teacher
hanya
the road
kallo
to look at
Questions & Answers about Malami yana kallon hanya, ni kuwa ina duba sigina.
Why does the sentence have yana with Malami and ina with ni?
These are subject + progressive/imperfective forms.
- yana = he is / he does
- ina = I am / I do
So:
- Malami yana kallon hanya = The teacher is looking at the road
- ni kuwa ina duba sigina = as for me / while I am checking the signal
A thing that often surprises English speakers is that Hausa still uses this agreement form even when the subject noun is already stated:
- Malami yana ...
- literally something like teacher he-is ...
That is normal Hausa grammar.
Why is it kallon and not just kalla?
kallo is the verbal noun of kalla (to look at / watch). In this kind of structure, Hausa often uses the progressive marker plus a verbal noun rather than the plain dictionary verb.
So:
- kalla = to look at
- kallo = looking / watching
- kallon hanya = looking at the road
The -n in kallon is a linker used before the following noun. You can think of it as connecting looking to road.
So the pattern is roughly:
- yana + verbal noun + object
Example:
- yana karatu = he is reading / studying
- yana kallon hanya = he is looking at the road