Learn Hardcore Hausa: ɗan sanda yana tsaye kusa da titi yana kula da motoci su tsaya da kyau. - The police officer is standing near the street, watching that the cars stop properly.

ɗan sanda – a policeman
- ɗan – son/child of (used in many compound nouns)
- sanda – stick/rod (here, baton → police)
yana – he is (3rd person masculine singular, continuous/progressive marker)
tsaye – standing (state resulting from the verb tsaya “to stand/stop”)
kusa da – near / close to
- kusa – nearness
- da – with/to (here part of the preposition “near to”)
titi – road / street
yana – again he is (continuing description of the same subject)
kula da – watching / monitoring / paying attention to
- kula – care, attention, supervision
- da – with/of (links the verb to its object)
motoci – cars (plural of mota “car”)
su tsaya – that they stop
- su – they (3rd person plural subject pronoun in a “subjunctive/purpose” sense here)
- tsaya – to stop / to stand
da kyau – well / properly
- da – with (used to make a manner adverb)
- kyau – goodness, beauty → well, nicely, properly

Natural translation: “A policeman is standing near the road, watching the cars so that they stop properly.”

What does “ɗan sanda” literally mean, and how do you make it plural?

Literally, ɗan sanda is “child/son of the baton/stick” – metaphorically, someone who carries the baton, i.e. a policeman.
It’s a fixed expression for police officer (regardless of gender in everyday speech).

Plural:

ɗan sanda → ’yan sanda (often written yan sanda)
- ɗan (singular “child of”) → ’yan (plural “children of”)
Example:
- ɗan sanda yana tsaye – A policeman is standing.
- ’yan sanda suna tsaye – Policemen are standing.

What is the function of “yana” in this sentence, and why is it repeated?

“yana” is the 3rd person masculine singular continuous/progressive marker, roughly “he is …-ing”.

In the sentence it appears twice:

ɗan sanda yana tsaye – the policeman is standing
… yana kula da motoci… – he is watching/monitoring the cars…

Even though it’s the same subject (the same policeman), Hausa normally repeats yana in coordinated actions to keep the structure clear:

Correct / natural:
- ɗan sanda yana tsaye kusa da titi yana kula da motoci…
If you drop the second yana, it sounds incomplete or wrong:
- ✗ ɗan sanda yana tsaye kusa da titi kula da motoci…

You can add a comma in writing for clarity, but the spoken pattern is just a pause:

ɗan sanda yana tsaye kusa da titi, yana kula da motoci…

What is the difference between “yana tsaye” and “ya tsaya”?

They come from the same root tsaya (to stand, to stop) but express different aspects:

yana tsaye
- Literally: he is (in a state of) standing
- Describes a current or ongoing state: he is standing (now).
- tsaye is a stative form (like “standing” as a posture).
ya tsaya
- Literally: he stood / he stopped
- Perfective: focuses on the event of standing/stopping, not the ongoing state.
- More like: he came to a stop or he stood (up).

In your sentence, “yana tsaye” is correct because we care about his position right now, not the moment when he happened to stand up or stop.

Is “tsaye” a verb, an adjective, or something else?

“tsaye” is a stative form derived from the verb tsaya.

tsaya – dynamic verb: “to stand / to stop”
tsaye – the resulting state: “standing (upright)”

It behaves somewhat like an adjective or participle in English, but grammatically in Hausa you usually pair it with yana / suna / muna…:

ina tsaye – I am standing
suna tsaye – they are standing
mu na tsaye – we are standing

So in “yana tsaye”, yana is carrying the tense/aspect, and tsaye is the state he is in.

Could you say “ɗan sanda na tsaye” instead of “ɗan sanda yana tsaye”?

You will hear “ɗan sanda na tsaye”, but there’s a nuance:

yana tsaye – neutral, very common: he is standing (progressive/continuous).
na tsaye (without explicit ya): more colloquial / dialectal, also used, but standard teaching usually gives:
- ɗan sanda yana tsaye for “the policeman is standing”.

For a learner, it’s safer to stick to “yana tsaye” for clear, standard present continuous.

What is the role of “kusa da titi”, and could it be said in other ways?

“kusa da titi” means “near the road / close to the road”.

kusa – nearness/close-ness
da – here forms a preposition “to/with” → “near to”
titi – road, street

Other natural variants:

a kusa da titi – at/around near the road (adds explicit location a “at/in”)
a bakin titi – literally at the mouth/edge of the road → by the roadside
gefen titi – at the side of the road

All are fine; kusa da titi is straightforward and clear: “near the road.”

What does “kula da” mean here, and how is it different from just “kula”?

“kula da” is a phrasal verb meaning:

to watch, monitor, pay attention to, look after, supervise something/someone.

The “da” after kula is essential; it introduces the thing you are watching:

yana kula da motoci – he is watching / monitoring the cars
na kula da yara – I look after the children
kina kula da lafiya? – are you taking care of your health?

By itself, kula in isolation is not usually used as the full verb in this sense; you really need kula da + object.

Why do we say “motoci su tsaya” and not something like “motoci suna tsayawa”?

The pattern “kula da X su Y” is very common in Hausa. It means something like:

“to make sure / to see to it that X does Y”

So:

yana kula da motoci su tsaya da kyau
≈ he is watching the cars so that they (will) stop properly.

Here:

motoci – cars (plural)
su tsaya – they stop (subjunctive / purpose form)

If you said:

yana kula da motoci suna tsayawa da kyau

this would sound more like he’s just observing the fact that they are stopping well, rather than ensuring / controlling that they stop well.

So “motoci su tsaya”:

uses su + bare verb (a kind of subjunctive/purpose construction)
expresses intended or required action: that the cars should stop properly.

What exactly is “su” doing in “motoci su tsaya”?

“su” is the 3rd person plural subject pronoun (“they”) used in a subjunctive/purpose clause.

In “motoci su tsaya da kyau”:

motoci – cars (topic/subject NP)
su tsaya da kyau – (that) they stop properly

This structure often follows verbs of supervision, desire, command, effort, etc.:

yana so yara su karanta – he wants the children to read
na umurce su su tafi – I ordered them to go
muna kokarin motoci su tsaya da kyau – we are trying (to ensure) that cars stop properly

So su links back to motoci and marks that this is not just a description, but a required / intended action.

What does “da kyau” mean, and how does “da” work here?

“da kyau” means “well / properly / nicely”.

kyau – goodness, beauty
da – “with”, used here to form an adverbial phrase of manner

So literally: “with goodness”, i.e. in a good way.

You’ll see this pattern very often:

da sauri – quickly (with speed)
da hankali – carefully (with sense)
da karfi – strongly (with strength)

In your sentence:

su tsaya da kyau – they should stop well / properly.

Do we know from this sentence whether the policeman is forcing the cars to stop, or just watching them?

The Hausa sentence leans more towards “ensuring / supervising” than physically forcing.

yana kula da motoci su tsaya da kyau
– suggests he is:
- monitoring,
- checking,
- making sure
  that cars do stop properly.

It does not specifically say he is:

waving them down,
using a barrier,
issuing fines.

Those details would require extra words (e.g. yana tsayar da motoci – “he is stopping the cars”).

How would you make this sentence negative: “The policeman is not standing near the road watching the cars so that they stop properly”?

One natural negative version is:

ɗan sanda ba ya tsaye kusa da titi yana kula da motoci su tsaya da kyau ba.

Breakdown:

ba ya tsaye – he is not standing
ba … ba – the usual Hausa negation “not … (at all)”
The rest of the clause stays the same.

Depending on what exactly you want to negate, you could also restructure, but for a learner, “ɗan sanda ba ya tsaye kusa da titi…” is a clear way to express:

The policeman is not (in the state of) standing near the road (and) watching the cars to make sure they stop properly.