Ɗan wasan ya zura a raga.

The player scored.

Breakdown of Ɗan wasan ya zura a raga.

• a: in
• ya: he/it
• ɗan wasa: the player
• raga: the goal net

Questions & Answers about Ɗan wasan ya zura a raga.

Why are both ɗan wasan and ya present? Doesn’t that look like the player he?

Yes, from an English point of view it can look that way at first.

In Hausa, it is very normal to have:

• a full subject noun phrase: ɗan wasan
• plus a subject marker before the verb: ya

So ɗan wasan ya zura... is a standard pattern.
Here ya agrees with a third-person singular masculine subject.

A rough structural breakdown is:

• ɗan wasan = the player
• ya = he / masculine subject marker
• zura = put into, scored
• a raga = into the net / in the goal

So this is not bad or redundant Hausa. It is normal Hausa grammar.

What does ɗan wasan literally mean?

Literally, ɗan often means something like:

• son
• child
• or more broadly person associated with

And wasa means play or game.

So ɗan wasa literally comes from the idea of a person of play/game, and the natural English meaning is player.

In this sentence, ɗan wasan is the normal form for the player.

Why is it and not just ?