Breakdown of ’Yar uwa ta tana karatu ko tana aiki a asibiti kullum.
ne
to be
karatu
to study
a
at
aiki
to work
Questions & Answers about ’Yar uwa ta tana karatu ko tana aiki a asibiti kullum.
What does each word in ’Yar uwa ta tana karatu ko tana aiki a asibiti kullum literally mean?
Rough word‑by‑word breakdown (using a natural interpretation like “My sister either studies or works at the hospital every day”):
- ’yar – daughter (female child)
- uwa – mother
- ’yar uwa – literally “daughter of (the same) mother” → sister
- ta – a possessive pronoun here: my (often written together as ’yar uwata “my sister”; in other contexts it can mean her)
- tana – she is …-ing (feminine subject + progressive aspect; see next questions)
- karatu – reading / study / schooling
- ko – or
- tana – again: she is …-ing (repeated for the second verb)
- aiki – work / job (here effectively “working”)
- a – in / at (preposition)
- asibiti – hospital
- kullum – every day / always
So a very literal gloss could be:
“My-sister she-is studying or she-is working at hospital every-day.”
Why does ’yar uwa mean “sister”? It looks like it literally says “daughter mother”.