Lokacin girbi ya zo.

to come

Breakdown of Lokacin girbi ya zo.

• lokaci: the time
• ya: he/it
• girbi: the harvest

Questions & Answers about Lokacin girbi ya zo.

Why is it lokacin girbi and not just lokaci girbi?

Because Hausa usually puts the first noun into a linking/construct form when one noun is followed by another.

• lokaci = time
• lokacin girbi = time of harvest / harvest time

So the -n in lokacin helps connect it to girbi. This often corresponds to English of.

What part of the sentence is lokacin girbi?

It is the subject noun phrase of the sentence.

You can think of the sentence like this:

• lokacin girbi = harvest time / the time of harvest
• ya = subject marker agreeing with that noun
• zo = came / has come / arrived

So the structure is basically:

[subject] + [subject marker] + [verb]

Why is ya there if lokacin girbi is already the subject?

In Hausa, it is normal to have a full noun subject and a matching subject marker before the verb.

So:

• Lokacin girbi ya zo literally looks like Harvest time it-has-come

That is natural Hausa grammar. The ya is not extra in a bad way; it is part of the normal verbal pattern.