Koci ya tsara dabara.

he/it

Breakdown of Koci ya tsara dabara.

• koci: the coach
• dabara: the tactic; strategy
• tsara: to plan; arrange

Questions & Answers about Koci ya tsara dabara.

Why is there a ya after Koci? Isn’t Koci already the subject?

Yes, Koci is the subject, but Hausa normally still uses a subject marker before the verb.

So the pattern here is:

Koci + ya + tsara + dabara
subject + subject marker + verb + object

In this sentence, ya agrees with a third-person singular masculine subject. It is not an extra separate word like English he in the translation; it is part of how Hausa builds the sentence.

What exactly does ya mean here?

Ya marks:

• third person
• singular
• masculine
• a completed/perfective action

So ya tsara can often be understood as:

• planned
• has planned
• sometimes did plan

The exact English tense depends on context, because Hausa and English do not divide tense/aspect in exactly the same way.

Does this sentence mean simple past, like planned, or present perfect, like has planned?

It can match either one, depending on context.

The form ya tsara is a perfective/completed form. That means the action is viewed as complete. In English, that may come out as: