Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu.

to be

Breakdown of Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu.

• yanzu: now
• yaro: the child
• ji: to feel

Questions & Answers about Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu.

What does each word in Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu mean literally?

Word by word:

• yaro – boy
• yana – he is / it is (3rd person masculine singular, progressive)
• jin – feeling, experiencing (verbal noun of ji “to feel, to sense, to hear”)
• kunya – shame, shyness, modesty
• yanzu – now

So the structure is roughly: boy – he-is – feeling – shame/shyness – now.

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Why is it yana and not ya here?

• ya is the simple (perfective) form: ya ji = “he felt / he has felt”.
• yana is ya (he) + na (progressive marker), used for an ongoing action: yana jin = “he is feeling / he is experiencing”.

In Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu, we want “is feeling (now)”, not “felt”, so Hausa uses the progressive form yana.

Compare:

• Yaro yana jin kunya yanzu. – The boy is feeling shy now.
• Yaro ya ji kunya. – The boy felt shy / has felt shy.

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What exactly is jin? Why not just ji?