Ta sa murfi a kan tukunyar ruwa a ɗakin girki.

She put a lid on the pot of water in the kitchen.

Breakdown of Ta sa murfi a kan tukunyar ruwa a ɗakin girki.

• ruwa: the water
• a kan: on
• a: in
• ɗakin girki: the kitchen

Questions & Answers about Ta sa murfi a kan tukunyar ruwa a ɗakin girki.

What does Ta mean here, and does it always mean she?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun in Hausa. In this sentence it means she.

• ya = he / it (masculine)
• ta = she / it (feminine)

For people, ta refers to a female.
For things, the gender is usually not important for learners; you mostly just follow how speakers use it. Here we clearly mean a woman/girl, so ta = she.

How is past tense shown in Ta sa? Where is the “did/put” meaning?

Hausa doesn’t use a separate word like did for the past. Instead:

• ta = she (subject pronoun)
• sa = basic (perfective) verb form “put”

Together, ta sa means she put (completed action in the past).

For comparison:

• ta sa = she put / she has put (completed)
• tanā sa (or tana sa) = she is putting / she puts (ongoing or habitual)

What are the main meanings of the verb sa?