Questions & Answers about Malami ya ce kar mu cutar da kare ko tsuntsaye.
In this sentence, what does kar mean, and how is it different from kada?
kar is a negative command marker, roughly meaning do not / let not / should not.
- kar mu cutar... ≈ we should not harm... / let us not harm...
- kada is a slightly fuller or more formal form. In many contexts, kar and kada can both be used before a pronoun:
- kar mu tafi ≈ kada mu tafi (let us not go)
In everyday speech, especially before pronouns like mu, ka, ku, kar is extremely common; kada is frequent in more formal or careful speech and writing.
What is the role of ya in Malami ya ce?
ya is the 3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun (he). Hausa normally uses such a pronoun even when the subject noun is already mentioned:
- Malami ya ce... = The teacher, he said...
Here ya ce is the perfective form he said, showing a completed action in the past. So the beginning of the sentence means The teacher said...
How does ya ce kar mu cutar... correspond to English reported speech?