Da zarar motar ta iso, za mu tafi gida.

to go

Breakdown of Da zarar motar ta iso, za mu tafi gida.

• mu: we
• ta: it
• iso: to arrive

Questions & Answers about Da zarar motar ta iso, za mu tafi gida.

Why does the sentence start with Da zarar? What kind of expression is that?

Da zarar is a fixed time expression meaning as soon as / once / immediately when. It introduces a time clause (what happens first), and then the main clause tells what happens next.

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Why is it motar and not mota?

Mota is the basic form (car).
When a noun is immediately followed by something that modifies it (a possessor, a descriptive phrase, or a clause), Hausa often uses a “linking/construct” form. For many nouns ending in -a, that looks like -ar.

So:

• mota = a car / the car (in general)
• motar … = the car of … / the car that … (car + something following)

Here motar ta iso is essentially the car that arrives / when the car arrives.

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What is ta doing in motar ta iso?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun she/it used for nouns treated as feminine. Mota (car) is grammatically feminine in Hausa, so you say:

• ta iso = it arrived / it arrives

So motar ta iso literally looks like the car, it arrived (i.e., when the car arrives).

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