Ya faru yau.

today

Breakdown of Ya faru yau.

• ya: he/it
• faru: to happen; occur

Questions & Answers about Ya faru yau.

What does each word in Ya faru yau mean?

• ya = he/it in a 3rd-person singular masculine form, and here it also signals a completed action
• faru = happen / occur
• yau = today

So the whole sentence means It happened today.

What is ya doing here exactly?

In this sentence, ya is the 3rd-person singular masculine subject marker used with a completed action. English separates these ideas more clearly, but Hausa often packs them together.

So ya faru is basically it happened or he happened, depending on context. In this sentence, the natural meaning is it happened.

Why does Hausa use ya for it? Doesn’t ya mean he?

Yes, ya can mean he, but Hausa also uses 3rd-person forms for things, events, and situations. English has a special pronoun it, but Hausa usually does not work in exactly the same way.

So in a sentence like Ya faru yau, ya is not necessarily referring to a male person. It can refer to an event or situation: it happened today.

Why is it ya and not ta?