When to use it
Use it to ask the way to the main station in town.
The sentence in English — “How do you get to the central station from here?”
In “How do you get to the central station from here?” generic ‘you’ and ‘do’ are needed.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun used for people in general
- get
- verbget · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · "get to" means "arrive at"
- to
- prepositionpreposition of direction; "get to" means "arrive at"
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- central
- adjectiveadjective
- station
- nounnoun
- from
- prepositionpreposition
- here
- adverbadverb of place
The sentence in Hausa — “Ta yaya zan je babbar tasha daga nan?”
In “Ta yaya zan je babbar tasha daga nan?” the adjective ‘babbar’ (big, main) is feminine because ‘tasha’ is feminine. ‘je’ (go) takes the place directly, with no ‘to’, and the speaker asks about ‘I’ (zan).
- Ta
- prepositionta yaya = how
- yaya
- adverb'how'
- zan
- auxiliary verbza · person: 1st singular · tense: future · zan je = I will go
- je
- verbje · form: base · 'go', with no 'to'
- babbar
- adjectivefeminine babba 'big, main', since tasha is feminine
- tasha
- noun'station'
- daga
- preposition'from'
- nan
- adverbdaga nan = from here
English × Hausa — What changes from one language to the other
English uses generic ‘you’; Hausa asks about ‘I’, and adjectives agree in gender.
Example conversation
— Ta yaya zan je babbar tasha daga nan?
— How do you get to the central station from here?
— Hau keke napep, kusa ne.
— Take a keke napep, it's close.