Breakdown of Ba zan biya tela ba har sai na ga cewa ɗinkin ya yi kyau.
gani
to see
ba … ba
not
yi
to do
cewa
that
Questions & Answers about Ba zan biya tela ba har sai na ga cewa ɗinkin ya yi kyau.
Why does the sentence use ba twice: Ba zan ... ba?
This is a very common Hausa negation pattern.
In this sentence, ba ... ba wraps around the verbal part to mean not:
- Ba zan biya tela ba = I will not pay the tailor
So:
- the first ba starts the negative statement
- the second ba closes it
English only uses one not, but Hausa often uses this double marking.
What does zan mean here?
Zan means I will.
So:
- zan biya = I will pay
In this sentence:
- Ba zan biya tela ba = I will not pay the tailor
A useful way to remember it is that zan is the normal Hausa future form for I.
Why is it biya tela and not something like biya wa tela?
Because biya can take the person being paid directly as its object.
So:
- biya tela = pay the tailor
- biya malam = pay the teacher
This is normal Hausa structure. English also says pay the tailor, so in this case the two languages line up fairly well.
What exactly does har sai mean in this sentence?