Kofi ya cika da ruwa.

the water

Breakdown of Kofi ya cika da ruwa.

• da: with
• kofi: the cup
• cika: to be full

Questions & Answers about Kofi ya cika da ruwa.

What does ya mean in this sentence, since the subject is already Kofi?

In Kofi ya cika da ruwa, ya is a subject pronoun + tense/aspect marker.

• It shows:
  • who is doing the action (3rd person singular, masculine: he/it), and
  • what aspect/tense the verb is in (here: perfective, a completed action).

So literally, the structure is:

• Kofi – the cup (a masculine noun in Hausa)
• ya – he/it (masc) has
• cika – become full / filled
• da ruwa – with water

You cannot drop ya.
❌ Kofi cika da ruwa is ungrammatical.
✅ Kofi ya cika da ruwa is correct.

Why is a cup treated as masculine? Does Hausa have grammatical gender?

Yes, Hausa has grammatical gender: nouns are either masculine or feminine, and this includes inanimate objects like cup, house, car, etc.

• Kofi (cup) is grammatically masculine, so it takes ya (3rd person singular masculine) as its subject marker.
• If the noun were feminine, you would see ta instead of ya.

Examples:

• Kofi ya cika da ruwa. – The cup is full of water. (masculine)
• Kwakwa ta bushe. – The coconut is dry. (feminine, so ta)

You generally have to learn the gender of each noun. Sometimes ending patterns help, but often it’s just part of the word’s dictionary information.