“I've never eaten Japanese food.” in Hausa: “Ban taɓa cin abincin Japan ba.”

When to use it

Use it when someone invites you for sushi and it would be your first time.

“I've never eaten Japanese food.” — The sentence in English

In “I've never eaten Japanese food.” the present perfect (‘have’ + ‘eaten’) marks a life experience.

I

pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter

've

auxiliary verbhave · tense: present · person: first · number: singular · short form of "have"; with "eaten" it talks about life experience up to now

never

adverbadverb of frequency

eaten

verbeat · form: past participle · irregular verb: eat, ate, eaten

Japanese

adjectiveadjective of nationality, always capitalised in English

food

nounnoun

“Ban taɓa cin abincin Japan ba.” — The sentence in Hausa

In “Ban taɓa cin abincin Japan ba.” the negation has two parts: the ‘ba’ inside ‘Ban’ at the start and the final ‘ba’. ‘taɓa’ (ever) with the negation means never, and ‘abincin Japan’ is food of Japan.

Ban

pronounba + n 'I': I (negative completive)

taɓa

verbtaɓa · aspect: completive, negative · 'ever'; ban taɓa = I have never

cin

verbci · form: verbal noun + -n · ci 'eat' + -n: eating (of)

abincin

nounabinci 'food' + linker -n

Japan

proper noun'Japan'; abincin Japan = Japanese food

ba

particlesecond ba closes the negation

English × Hausa: What changes from one language to the other

English changes the verb; Hausa wraps the sentence in ‘ba… ba’ and uses the country name for the adjective.

Example conversation