Fartanyar tana nan.

here

Breakdown of Fartanyar tana nan.

• ta: she/it
• fartanya: the hoe

Questions & Answers about Fartanyar tana nan.

Why does the sentence use tana?

Tana is the feminine singular subject marker/pronoun. In this sentence, it agrees with fartanya, which is a feminine noun. So tana nan means something like it is here.

Even though English uses it for things, Hausa still assigns nouns to grammatical genders, so a thing can take the same agreement pattern as she would.

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Why is it fartanyar and not just fartanya?

Fartanya is the basic dictionary form of the noun. Fartanyar is a form often used when the noun is specific, roughly like the hoe.

That final -r is very common with feminine nouns in this kind of use. You can think of it as a feminine linking/determined form. A very rough learner-friendly idea is:

• fartanya = hoe
• fartanyar = the hoe / that specific hoe

So in this sentence, fartanyar tana nan means the hoe is here.

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Does Hausa have a separate word for is here?