Rigata fara ce, amma wando na baƙi ne.

to be

Breakdown of Rigata fara ce, amma wando na baƙi ne.

• amma: but
• riga: the shirt
• wando: the trousers

Questions & Answers about Rigata fara ce, amma wando na baƙi ne.

What does each word in Rigata fara ce, amma wando na baƙi ne correspond to in English?

Word‑for‑word, you can break it down like this:

• rigata – my shirt / my dress (literally: shirt
  • a possessive ending meaning my)
• fara – white (feminine form of white, agreeing with riga)
• ce – a copula, roughly “is”, used with feminine nouns/adjectives
• amma – but
• wando – trousers / pants (literally one pair of trousers)
• na – my (possessive pronoun placed after wando)
• baƙi – black (masculine form of black, agreeing with wando)
• ne – a copula, roughly “is”, used with masculine (and plural) nouns/adjectives

So structurally it’s like:
My‑shirt white is, but trousers my black are. (Natural English: My shirt is white, but my trousers are black.)

Why is it rigata for “my shirt” but wando na for “my trousers”? Why not the same pattern in both?