Breakdown of Gayyatar tana cewa su zo gida mu ci abinci tare.
ne
to be
abinci
the food
gida
the home
zo
to come
Questions & Answers about Gayyatar tana cewa su zo gida mu ci abinci tare.
What exactly does “Gayyatar” mean, and what is the -r at the end?
Gayyata means “invitation”.
The -r on gayyatar is the definite suffix attached to many feminine nouns ending in -a, so gayyatar means “the invitation”, not just “an invitation”.
Why is it “tana” and not “yana”? Why is the verb feminine here?
In Hausa, verbs agree in gender with their subject in the 3rd person singular.
Gayyata(r) is treated as a feminine noun, so the agreement form is ta (she/it) + na (progressive marker) → tana.
If the subject were a masculine noun, you would get yana instead.
What does “tana cewa” literally mean, and how does that compare to English “says”?
Literally, tana cewa is “it is saying” (she/it + PROG + “saying”).
In English we usually say “the invitation says …” in the simple present, but Hausa very often uses this progressive form for statements of content, so gayyatar tana cewa … is the natural way to say “the invitation says that …”.
What is the role of “cewa” in this sentence? Can it be left out?