Kalli talabijin da yamma.

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Breakdown of Kalli talabijin da yamma.

• yamma: the evening
• talabijin: the television
• kalli: to watch

Questions & Answers about Kalli talabijin da yamma.

In Kalli talabijin da yamma, who is being told to watch? There’s no word for you in the sentence.

Hausa doesn’t need to say you in a basic command.

• Kalli is an imperative verb: Kalli = Watch! / Look at! (to one person).
• Because it’s an imperative, “you” is understood from the verb form itself.

So Kalli talabijin da yamma literally means:

• Watch television in the evening (you – singular, implied).

If you want to make the subject explicit and emphasize you, you can add a pronoun in a fuller sentence, for example:

• Kai ka kalli talabijin da yamma. – You (male) watch TV in the evening.
• Ke ki kalli talabijin da yamma. – You (female) watch TV in the evening.

But for a simple command, Kalli … by itself is completely natural.

What exactly does kalli mean, and how is it related to other forms like kallo or kalla?

Kalli comes from the Hausa verb for to look at / watch. You’ll meet several related forms:

• kallo – verbal noun: watching / looking (at something)
  
  • kallon talabijin – watching television
• ya kalla – he watched / he looked at (past/perfective)
• kalli! – imperative: Watch! / Look at! (addressing one person)

So in your sentence: