ɗan sanda ya tsayar da motar kasuwa a gefe na titi.

The police officer stopped the market car at the side of the road.

Breakdown of ɗan sanda ya tsayar da motar kasuwa a gefe na titi.

• a: at
• na: of
• gefe: the side
• titi: the street

Questions & Answers about ɗan sanda ya tsayar da motar kasuwa a gefe na titi.

Why does the sentence start with ɗan sanda? What does it literally mean, and is it always “policeman”?

ɗan sanda is the common way to say policeman / police officer in Hausa.

Literally:

• ɗan = child / son (and more generally “person associated with”)
• sanda = stick, baton

So ɗan sanda is something like “person of the stick/baton”, i.e. someone who carries a baton – a police officer.

A few extra points:

• It is routinely used for “policeman / police officer” in general conversation.
• For a specifically female officer, you may also hear ’yar sanda (literally “daughter/person of the stick”).
• Even though the literal meaning is “son/child of stick”, learners should just remember it as the standard word for a police officer.

What is ya doing in ɗan sanda ya tsayar da…? Is it “he”, or is it a tense marker?

ya here is both: it is a short subject pronoun that also marks the perfective aspect (usually translated as a simple past).

Structure:

• ɗan sanda = “the policeman” (full noun phrase subject)
• ya tsayar da… = “he stopped…”

In Hausa, even when you have a full noun subject (ɗan sanda), you still normally use the short pronoun before the verb:

• ɗan sanda ya tsayar da… = “the policeman, he stopped…”

So:

• ya agrees with the subject (3rd person singular, masculine).
• It also tells you the aspect (perfective, often past).

You cannot just say ɗan sanda tsayar da motar kasuwa… – you need ya in there.