Tsaba tana nan.

here

Breakdown of Tsaba tana nan.

• ta: she/it
• tsaba: seeds; grain

Questions & Answers about Tsaba tana nan.

Why is tana there if tsaba is already the subject?

Because Hausa normally uses a subject-agreement form inside the clause. Tsaba names the thing, and tana agrees with it and helps build the predicate.

So the structure is roughly:

tsaba + tana + nan
noun + agreeing subject form + location

English does not usually do this, so it can feel like the subject is being repeated.

What does tana mean in this sentence?

Here, tana means something like it is or she is for a feminine singular subject.

In tana nan, the whole expression means is here. So in this sentence, tana is not a separate action verb like eat or go. It is part of the locational pattern.

Why is the feminine form used?

Because tsaba takes feminine singular agreement in Hausa.

Hausa nouns belong to agreement classes often called masculine and feminine. For things that are not people, this is grammatical gender, not biological sex. So a noun can be grammatically feminine even if it is an object.

That is why the sentence uses ta- in tana, not ya-.

What would happen if the noun were masculine or plural instead?