Tsohon ya mutu.

The old man died.

Breakdown of Tsohon ya mutu.

• tsoho: old
• ya: he/it
• mutu: to die

Questions & Answers about Tsohon ya mutu.

Why is ya there if Tsohon is already the subject?

Because Hausa normally uses an agreeing subject marker before the verb, even when the subject noun is already stated.

So the pattern here is:

• Tsohon = the old man / the old one
• ya = masculine singular subject marker in the completive
• mutu = die

A very literal way to think of it is:

• The old man, he died

That sounds redundant in English, but it is normal Hausa structure.

If you left out ya and said Tsohon mutu, that would not be the normal way to make this sentence.

What exactly does ya mean here?

ya tells you several things at once:

• the subject is third person
• the subject is singular
• the subject is masculine
• the action is in the completive form

So in this sentence, ya is roughly the part that gives the sense of he plus a completed event.

That is why ya mutu can be translated as:

• he died
• he has died

depending on context.

Why is the first word Tsohon and not tsoho?