Daliba ta ce idan ina karanta littafi mai ban sha'awa, ido na ba ya gajiya da sauri.

A female student said that when I read an interesting book, my eyes do not get tired quickly.

Breakdown of Daliba ta ce idan ina karanta littafi mai ban sha'awa, ido na ba ya gajiya da sauri.

• ne: to be
• ba … ba: not
• karanta: to read
• littafi: the book

Questions & Answers about Daliba ta ce idan ina karanta littafi mai ban sha'awa, ido na ba ya gajiya da sauri.

What does Daliba tell us about the gender of the speaker, and how would I say male student?

Daliba means female student. In Hausa, many nouns have masculine and feminine forms:

• Dalibi = male student
• Daliba = female student

So Daliba ta ce… clearly tells us that the person who spoke is female.
If it were a male student, you would say: Dalibi ya ce idan ina karanta…

Why is it ta ce and not ya ce? How does this agreement work?

Hausa verbs agree with the subject in gender and number, using subject pronouns before the verb:

• ya ce = he said (or it said, masculine)
• ta ce = she said (or it said, feminine)

Because Daliba (female student) is grammatically feminine, the correct agreement is:

• Daliba ta ce… = The (female) student said…

With a male student, you’d have:

• Dalibi ya ce… = The (male) student said…

In English we say “The student said that…”. Where is “that” in Hausa? Can I use cewa here?