When to use it
Use it before a weekend shop when you are unsure the supermarket opens.
“Is the supermarket open on Sundays?” · The sentence in English
In “Is the supermarket open on Sundays?” ‘Is’ moves to the front and plural ‘Sundays’ means every Sunday.
- Is
- verbbe · tense: present · person: third · number: singular · form of "to be"; it moves to the front to make the question
- the
- determinerdefinite article
- supermarket
- nounnoun
- open
- adjectiveadjective; in English a shop "is open"
- on
- prepositionpreposition used with days of the week
- Sundays
- nounplural noun; days of the week take a capital letter
“Shin babban kanti yana buɗe ranar Lahadi?” · The sentence in Hausa
In “Shin babban kanti yana buɗe ranar Lahadi?” ‘yana’ (it is) is masculine because ‘kanti’ (shop) is masculine. ‘ranar Lahadi’ (day of Sunday) is on Sunday, and ‘babban kanti’ (big shop) is a supermarket.
- Shin
- particlemarks the question
- babban
- adjective'big'; babban kanti = supermarket
- kanti
- noun'shop'
- yana
- pronoun'it is', masculine for kanti
- buɗe
- adjective'open'
- ranar
- nounrana 'day' + -r; ranar Lahadi = on Sunday
- Lahadi
- proper noun'Sunday'
What changes from one language to the other · English × Hausa
English shows the habit with plural ‘Sundays’; Hausa says ‘ranar Lahadi’, and the pronoun agrees in gender.
Example conversation
— Shin babban kanti yana buɗe ranar Lahadi?
— Is the supermarket open on Sundays?
— Eh, amma har ƙarfe takwas kawai.
— Yes, but only until eight.