Ko da yake ya tuntsure, rauninsa kaɗan ne.

to be

Breakdown of Ko da yake ya tuntsure, rauninsa kaɗan ne.

• kaɗan: a little
• ko da yake: even though
• ya: he/it

Questions & Answers about Ko da yake ya tuntsure, rauninsa kaɗan ne.

What does ko da yake mean, and should I learn it as one expression?

Yes. Ko da yake is best learned as a fixed expression meaning although / even though. It introduces a concessive clause: something is true despite something else.

So in this sentence, ko da yake ya tuntsure sets up the idea although he ....

Why is ya used here instead of shi?

Because Hausa uses different pronoun forms in different jobs.

• ya = the normal 3rd person singular masculine subject form before a verb in this kind of clause
• shi = an independent or object form, not the normal subject form here

So ya tuntsure means he ... in a verbal clause. If the person were female, you would expect ta instead of ya.

What tense or aspect is ya tuntsure?

ya + verb usually marks the completive/perfective in Hausa. Very often, that corresponds to English he did, he has done, or simply a past event.

So ya tuntsure refers to something that has already happened. The exact English tense depends on context.

Is tuntsure an exact match for one English verb?