Breakdown of Ba zan fara dafa miya ba har sai kin yanka albasa.
dafa
to cook
ba … ba
not
miya
the soup
fara
to start
Questions & Answers about Ba zan fara dafa miya ba har sai kin yanka albasa.
Why are there two bas in Ba zan ... ba?
Because Hausa commonly marks sentence negation with a double negation frame: ba ... ba.
So:
- Ba zan fara dafa miya ba = I will not start cooking soup
The first ba comes before the verbal part, and the second ba closes it. In standard Hausa, that final ba is an important part of the pattern, not just extra emphasis.
What does zan mean, and where is the word for I?
Zan is the 1st person singular future/potential form, so it means something like I will or I am going to.
That is why there is no separate word for I here: the subject is already built into zan.
So:
- zan fara = I will start
If you want extra emphasis, Hausa can add ni, but it is not necessary here.
How do fara and dafa work together?