Bizar ta ƙare jiya.

yesterday

Breakdown of Bizar ta ƙare jiya.

• ƙare: to end
• ta: she/it
• biza: the visa

Questions & Answers about Bizar ta ƙare jiya.

What does ta do in this sentence?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine completive subject marker. In this sentence, it refers back to bizar and means it in English.

So ta ƙare means it ended / it finished / it expired.

In Hausa, this little word is very important: it shows both agreement with the subject and the aspect of the verb.

Why is it ta and not ya?

Because biza is treated as a feminine noun in Hausa.

Hausa uses grammatical gender, so nouns take different agreement words:

• ya for many masculine singular nouns
• ta for feminine singular nouns

So since biza is feminine, the sentence uses ta ƙare, not ya ƙare.

This is grammatical gender, not biological sex. Even inanimate things can be masculine or feminine in Hausa.

Why is the word bizar and not just biza?

The basic dictionary form is biza. In this sentence, bizar is the linked/specific form of the noun.

With many feminine nouns in Hausa, you often see -r added when the noun is being linked to what follows, especially in definite or specific contexts.

So:

• biza = visa
• = the visa / that visa, in a linked form