Gobe zan tafi birni da bas daga tashar mota.

tomorrow

Breakdown of Gobe zan tafi birni da bas daga tashar mota.

• da: with
• tafi: to go
• daga: from

Questions & Answers about Gobe zan tafi birni da bas daga tashar mota.

What exactly is zan, and how is it formed?

Zan is the Hausa future marker for “I will …”.

• It is a contraction of za + ni:
  • za = future particle
  • ni = “I”
• So:
  • zan tafi = za ni tafi = I will go
• Other persons work the same way:
  • zaka tafi = za + ka = you (m.sg) will go
  • zaki tafi = za + ki = you (f.sg) will go
  • zai tafi = za + shi = he will go
  • zata tafi = za + ta = she will go
  • zamu tafi = za + mu = we will go
  • zaku tafi = za + ku = you (pl) will go
  • za su tafi / zasu tafi = they will go

You cannot drop the pronoun: *za tafi is ungrammatical for “I will go”; it must be zan tafi.

Why is it zan tafi and not something like zan je or ina tafiya?