Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.

I am drawing a bird on paper.

Breakdown of Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.

• ni: I
• ne: to be
• a: on
• tsuntsu: the bird
• takarda: the paper
• zana: to draw

Questions & Answers about Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.

What does each word in Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda mean?

Word by word, you have:

• Ni – I / me (independent subject pronoun, used for emphasis or contrast)
• ina – I (imperfective / “present” marker); roughly “I am …-ing / I (usually) …”
• zana – draw (verb “to draw”)
• tsuntsu – bird
• a – in / at / on (general locative preposition)
• takarda – paper (also “document / letter” in other contexts)

So the whole sentence is basically:
Ni – I (emphatic), ina – I (am), zana – draw, tsuntsu – bird, a takarda – on paper → “I am drawing a bird on paper.”

Why do we need both Ni and ina? Don’t they both mean “I”?

Yes, both refer to the first person singular, but they have different roles:

• ina is the normal subject+aspect marker for “I” in the imperfective (ongoing / general present). It is required before the verb:

  • Ina zana tsuntsu. – I am drawing a bird.

• Ni is an independent / emphatic pronoun. It’s not required for a neutral sentence. It is added for emphasis, contrast, or focus, similar to:

  • Ni ina zana tsuntsu. – Me, I am drawing a bird. / I (as opposed to someone else) am drawing a bird.

So:

• Natural neutral sentence: Ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.
• Emphatic / contrastive: Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.

You can think: ina = grammatical “I am …”, ni = extra emphasis on “I”.

So is ina more like “am” or more like “I am”?

Functionally, ina behaves more like “I am …” together:

• It already includes the subject I.
• It also tells you the aspect (imperfective / ongoing or general present).

You could (very roughly) map:

• ina zana ≈ “I am drawing / I draw”
• kana zana ≈ “you are drawing / you draw” (sg. masc.)
• yana zana ≈ “he is drawing / he draws”

Because ina already contains the idea of “I”, you do not have to say Ni every time. Ni is only added for emphasis or contrast.

So internally:

• Ni = I (emphatic)
• ina = I+imperfective (“I am / I do”)

What tense/aspect does ina zana express? Is it only “I am drawing (right now)”?

ina zana is the imperfective form. In practice it covers:

1. Ongoing present / progressive:

   • Ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.
     I am drawing a bird on paper (right now).

2. General / habitual present (depending on context):

   • Ina zana tsuntsaye a kullum.
     I (usually) draw birds every day.

So the form itself is “uncompleted / ongoing or repeated action”. English forces you to choose between “I am drawing” and “I draw”, but Hausa uses the same form and lets context decide whether it sounds progressive or habitual.

How is Ina zana tsuntsu different from Na zana tsuntsu and Zan zana tsuntsu?

All three use the same verb zana (“draw”), but different subject+aspect markers:

1. Ina zana tsuntsu.

   • ina = 1st person singular, imperfective
   • Meaning: I am drawing a bird / I draw a bird (generally).

2. Na zana tsuntsu.

   • na = 1st person singular, perfective
   • Meaning: I drew a bird / I have drawn a bird (completed action).

3. Zan zana tsuntsu.

   • zan = 1st person singular, future
   • Meaning: I will draw a bird.

So:

• ina zana → ongoing or habitual
• na zana → completed
• zan zana → future

Does tsuntsu mean specifically “a bird”, or could it also be “the bird”? There’s no “a/an” here.

Hausa does not have separate words for “a/an” and “the” like English does. The bare noun tsuntsu can mean:

• “a bird” (indefinite)
• “the bird” (definite), if it’s already known from context
• “bird” in a generic sense

So Ina zana tsuntsu a takarda can be translated as:

• I am drawing a bird on paper.
• I am drawing the bird on paper.

The context decides which English article is appropriate. For stronger definiteness, Hausa can add particles like -n / -r / ɗin, e.g. tsuntsun nan (that bird), but they are not obligatory in a simple sentence like this.

What exactly does the preposition a mean here? Why “a takarda” and not some other preposition?

a is a very common, fairly general locative preposition. It can be translated as in / at / on, depending on the noun and context.

In this sentence:

• a takarda → literally “in/at/on paper”, which in English comes out as “on paper”.

Other related prepositions you might meet:

• akan – more explicitly “on top of” (surface contact)
• cikin – “inside, in”
• a cikin – also “in, inside (within)”

For drawing or writing on paper, a takarda is very natural.
da takarda would mean “with paper (as a tool)”, which is not what you want here.

Is the word order fixed? Can I move a takarda earlier in the sentence?

The neutral, most natural word order in Hausa is:

Subject – Verb – Object – (other elements like place/time)

So in your sentence:

• Ni / ina – Subject
• zana – Verb
• tsuntsu – Object
• a takarda – Prepositional phrase (location)

→ Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.

You generally do not say:

• ✗ Ni ina zana a takarda tsuntsu. (sounds wrong / unnatural)

You can sometimes shift elements for special emphasis (especially at a higher level of proficiency), but the safe, standard pattern is:

[Subject] [ina + verb] [object] [place/time phrase]

Does anything change in this sentence if the speaker is female?

No. For the 1st person singular (“I”), Hausa does not distinguish gender in these forms.

Both a man and a woman say:

• Ni ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.
  I am drawing a bird on paper.

Gender differences appear in the 2nd and 3rd person singular pronouns, for example:

• Kai kana zana tsuntsu. – You (male) are drawing a bird.
• Ke kina zana tsuntsu. – You (female) are drawing a bird.
• Yana zana tsuntsu. – He is drawing a bird.
• Tana zana tsuntsu. – She is drawing a bird.

But for “I”, it’s always ina for the imperfective.

What is the plural of tsuntsu? How would I say “I am drawing birds”?

The regular plural of tsuntsu (“bird”) is tsuntsaye (“birds”).

So:

• Ina zana tsuntsu a takarda.
  I am drawing a bird on paper.

• Ina zana tsuntsaye a takarda.
  I am drawing birds on paper.

Note:

• The -aye ending is a common plural pattern for certain nouns in Hausa (though plural formation can be quite irregular overall).

Is zana related to zan in zan zana? They look very similar.

They look similar, but they play different grammatical roles:

• zana – the verb “to draw” (stem form)
• zan – the 1st person singular future marker (“I will …”)

So:

• Ina zana tsuntsu. – I am drawing a bird.
• Zan zana tsuntsu. – I will draw a bird.

In zan zana, the repetition is just coincidence from the learner’s point of view:

• zan = “I (future)”
• zana = “draw”

They are not the same word, even though they share the syllable zan-.