Ƙofa tana kusa da taga.

to be

Breakdown of Ƙofa tana kusa da taga.

• kusa: near
• da: with
• ƙofa: the door

Questions & Answers about Ƙofa tana kusa da taga.

What does each individual word in Ƙofa tana kusa da taga correspond to in English?

Word by word:

• Ƙofa – door
• ta-na (written tana) – literally she is / it is (for a feminine noun), functioning like “is” here
• kusa – near, close
• da – to / with (here it links near to the thing it is near)
• taga – window

So structurally it is: Door – it-is – near – to – window.

Why is it tana and not yana in this sentence?

Hausa treats many nouns as grammatically masculine or feminine.

• Ƙofa (door) is grammatically feminine.
• For feminine singular subjects, Hausa uses ta as the pronoun “she/it (fem.)”.
• With the imperfective/aspect marker na, this becomes tana (ta + na).

If the subject were masculine, like gida (house, masc.), you would say:

• Gida yana kusa da taga. – The house is near the window.

So:

• tana = “she/it (fem.) is”
• yana = “he/it (masc.) is”

Ƙofa is feminine, so you must use tana.