Breakdown of Likita ya ce kar mu ci sukari da yawa domin lafiyar baki da hanci.
da
and
ci
to eat
lafiya
the health
mu
we
Questions & Answers about Likita ya ce kar mu ci sukari da yawa domin lafiyar baki da hanci.
What is the role of kar in kar mu ci, and how is this different from other negatives in Hausa?
Kar is used to make a negative command / negative suggestion (what in English would be “don’t…” or “let’s not…”).
Structure:
- kar + subject pronoun + bare verb
- kar mu ci = “let’s not eat / we should not eat”
Examples:
- Kar ka tafi. – “Don’t go.” (to one male)
- Kar ki tafi. – “Don’t go.” (to one female)
- Kar su yi haka. – “They should not do that.”
This is different from the more general sentence negative that uses ba … ba:
- Ba mu ci sukari da yawa ba. – “We do not eat a lot of sugar.”
And different from the future negative:
- Ba za mu ci sukari da yawa ba. – “We will not eat a lot of sugar.”
In this sentence, kar mu ci is specifically a prohibition / warning: “we should not eat.”
Why is it mu ci and not something like muna ci or muna cin sukari?