Dabbar ta mutu.

the animal

Breakdown of Dabbar ta mutu.

• ta: she/it
• mutu: to die

Questions & Answers about Dabbar ta mutu.

Why is the noun dabba written as dabbar here?

Dabba is the basic dictionary form, but Hausa often uses a special linked/specific form with -r for many feminine nouns ending in -a.

So:

• dabba = basic form
• dabbar = a more specific/linked form

In a sentence like this, dabbar often feels like the animal or that animal rather than just animal in general.

Different grammar books describe this form differently, but the important point for a learner is: the final -r is part of the noun form, not a separate word.

What exactly is ta doing in this sentence?

Here ta is the 3rd-person singular feminine subject marker used before the verb.

It agrees with dabbar, and it is part of the normal Hausa sentence pattern. So even though dabbar already names the subject, Hausa still uses ta before the verb.

You can think of the pattern as:

subject noun + subject marker + verb

So:

• Dabbar = subject noun
• ta = subject marker
• mutu = verb

Why is ta feminine if the sentence is about an animal? Does that mean the animal is female?