Mota ta tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

to be

Breakdown of Mota ta tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

• kusa: near
• da: with
• ƙofa: the door
• mota: the car
• ta: she
• tsaya: to stand

Questions & Answers about Mota ta tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

Why are there two ta‑like elements in Mota ta tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa? Is that the same pronoun twice?

In normal, learner‑level Hausa you would usually say:

• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

The form tana already includes ta inside it (historically ta + na), so adding a separate ta before it is not needed.

What may have happened in the sentence you were given is a mixing of two spelling styles:

• older / alternative spelling: ta na
• modern fused spelling: tana

So:

• Mota ta na tsaye kusa da ƙofa.
• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

These two mean the same thing. If you fuse ta na to tana, you should normally drop the extra ta before it.

For your own speaking and writing, it is safest to copy the very common pattern:

• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa. – not Mota ta tana …

What exactly does tana do in this sentence?

Tana is the subject‑pronoun + aspect form for 3rd person feminine singular in the imperfective / progressive:

• tana ≈ “she/it (feminine) is …‑ing / is (in a state) of …”

In the sentence:

• Mota tana tsaye…

tana is doing what “is” and the English ‑ing ending together do in English:

• tana tsaye ≈ “is standing / is in a standing position”

Other examples with tana:

• Ita tana aiki. – She is working.
• Jakar tana kan tebur. – The bag is on the table.

So whenever your subject is feminine and you want a present / ongoing meaning, you use tana before the main verb or verbal adjective.

What kind of word is tsaye? Is it a verb or an adjective?

Tsaye is a verbal adjective / participle formed from the verb tsaya (to stand, to stop). It behaves a bit like English “standing” used as an adjective.

Compare:

• ta tsaya – she/it (fem) stood / stopped (completed action)
• tana tsaye – she/it (fem) is standing / is in a standing state (ongoing state)

You often see similar “posture” words in Hausa:

• zaune – sitting
• kwance – lying (down)
• tsaye – standing

Examples:

• Mutum yana tsaye. – The person is standing.
• Yaro yana zaune. – The boy is sitting.
• Jariri yana kwance. – The baby is lying down.

So in Mota tana tsaye, tsaye describes the current state of the car: stationary, upright, “parked”.

Could I just say Mota tana kusa da ƙofa without tsaye? What is the difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Mota tana kusa da ƙofa.

This simply means “The car is near the door,” focusing on location.

Adding tsaye adds the idea of being in a standing / parked position:

• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa. – The car is (parked / standing) near the door.
• Mota tana kusa da ƙofa. – The car is near the door (no extra nuance of “standing”).

For vehicles, tana tsaye is often understood as “is parked / is standing still,” whereas tana kusa da… just says where it is.

What does kusa da mean exactly, and do kusa and da always go together?

Kusa by itself means “nearness, closeness,” and da is “with,” but in the fixed expression kusa da they function together and mean:

• kusa da X ≈ “near X / close to X”

So:

• kusa da ƙofa – near the door
• kusa da gida – near the house
• kusa da kasuwa – near the market

Here da is required to link kusa to the following noun. If you drop da, it sounds incomplete:

• ❌ kusa ƙofa – not correct in this meaning
• ✅ kusa da ƙofa – correct: “near the door”

You will also see kusa in other uses meaning “almost / nearly,” where it is not followed by da, but for “near something” you want kusa da.

Is mota feminine? How do I know to use ta / tana instead of ya / yana?

Yes, mota (car) is grammatically feminine in Hausa, so it takes feminine agreement:

• Mota tana tsaye… – The car is standing…
• Mota ta tsaya. – The car stopped.

Very broadly:

• Masculine nouns use ya / yana.
• Feminine nouns use ta / tana.

Examples:

• Littafi yana kan tebur. – The book (masc.) is on the table.
• Mota tana waje. – The car (fem.) is outside.
• Riga tana ɗaki. – The dress/shirt (fem.) is in the room.

Unfortunately, grammatical gender is mostly lexical (you have to learn it), though many inanimate nouns ending in ‑a are feminine. A good dictionary often marks nouns as m. or f., and you copy the appropriate pronouns from that.

Is ƙofa different from kofa? How do I pronounce ƙ?

Yes, ƙ and k are different consonants in Hausa:

• k – an ordinary [k] sound, like English k in “cat”.
• ƙ – an implosive stop, made with the tongue in a similar place but with a kind of inward / glottal movement. It is usually voiced and sounds somewhat between g and k for many learners.

ƙofa is the standard Hausa spelling for “door.” Writing kofa would be considered a spelling mistake in standard orthography.

You do not need to produce a perfect implosive at the beginning, but you should at least notice that:

• Hausa uses the dot‑below letters (ɓ, ɗ, ƙ) to represent special consonants.
• In some word pairs, changing k to ƙ changes the meaning, so the distinction matters in writing, even if your accent is not perfect.

Can I change the word order, for example Kusa da ƙofa mota tana tsaye?

Yes, you can front the location phrase for emphasis:

• Kusa da ƙofa mota tana tsaye. – “Near the door, the car is standing.”

This sounds like you are setting the scene: “As for the area near the door, the car is standing there.”

However, the most neutral everyday order is:

• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

So:

• Use Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa as your default.
• Use Kusa da ƙofa mota tana tsaye when you want to emphasize where first (e.g. contrasting different locations).

How would I express this in the past or future?

Hausa handles tense a bit differently from English, but for practical purposes:

1. Completed past action (“The car stood / stopped near the door.”):

• Mota ta tsaya kusa da ƙofa.

Here ta tsaya is the completed (perfective) form of tsaya.

2. Past state (“The car was standing near the door.”):

Very often Hausa just uses the same tana tsaye form and adds a time word:

• Jiya mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa. – Yesterday the car was standing near the door.

Context and time adverbs (like jiya “yesterday”) usually show that it is past.

3. Future (“The car will (come to) stand / stop near the door.”):

• Mota za ta tsaya kusa da ƙofa.

Here za ta tsaya is the future of ta tsaya.

To say “will be (in a state of) standing near the door” in a very literal, descriptive way, you might hear:

• Mota za ta kasance tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

But in many everyday contexts Mota za ta tsaya kusa da ƙofa is enough.

How do I make this sentence negative: “The car is not standing near the door”?

To negate an imperfective / progressive sentence like this, Hausa uses ba … ba and the shorter subject pronoun (without ‑na).

Affirmative:

• Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa.

Negative:

• Mota ba ta tsaye kusa da ƙofa ba. – The car is not standing near the door.

Pattern:

1. Put ba before the subject pronoun.
2. Use ta, not tana, in the negative.
3. Put the final ba at the end of the clause (often dropped in fast speech, but good to include as a learner).

More examples:

• Yaro yana tsaye. → Yaro ba ya tsaye ba. – The boy is not standing.
• Riga tana nan. → Riga ba ta nan ba. – The shirt/dress is not here.

Could I drop the pronoun entirely and just say Mota tsaye kusa da ƙofa?

Not in standard Hausa. You normally need the appropriate subject pronoun or pronoun‑aspect form in a finite clause.

So:

• ❌ Mota tsaye kusa da ƙofa. – ungrammatical as a full sentence.
• ✅ Mota tana tsaye kusa da ƙofa. – grammatical.

Hausa verbs and verbal adjectives almost always come with one of these pronoun forms (like tana, yana, suna, ta, ya) to mark person, gender, and aspect, even when the subject noun is already mentioned.