Questions & Answers about Wasikar da na rubuta jiya ta kawo mata farin ciki.
What does wasikar mean, and why is there an -r at the end instead of just wasika?
The base noun wasika means “letter”.
In wasikar, the -r on the end is a definite marker for many feminine nouns: it roughly corresponds to “the”.
- wasika = a letter
- wasikar = the letter
So Wasikar da na rubuta jiya… means “The letter that I wrote yesterday…”, not just “a letter”.
What is the function of da in wasikar da na rubuta jiya? Is it the same da that means “and/with”?
In this sentence, da is not “and/with”. Here it is a relative marker, meaning “that / which”, introducing a relative clause that describes the letter.
So:
- wasika = letter
- wasikar da na rubuta jiya = “the letter that I wrote yesterday”
The same word da is used in several functions in Hausa; in this context it is the relative “that/which”, not the conjunction “and”.
What does na mean in da na rubuta? Is it the same na that means “of/belonging to”?