When to use it
Use it when someone at the door asks for neighbours who have moved away.
The sentence in English: “They don't live here anymore.”
In “They don't live here anymore.” the negative needs ‘do’ and ‘not’, and ‘anymore’ closes the sentence.
- They
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person plural
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the negative with "n't"
- n't
- particleshort form of "not"
- live
- verblive · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "do" the verb keeps its base form
- here
- adverbadverb of place
- anymore
- adverbadverb; used with a negative to say something stopped
The sentence in Hausa: “Sun daina zama a nan.”
In “Sun daina zama a nan.” there is no negative word at all: the verb ‘daina’ (stop, quit) carries the meaning of ‘no longer’. ‘Sun’ joins ‘they’ with the completed aspect.
- Sun
- pronoun'they', completive aspect
- daina
- verbdaina · aspect: completive · 'stop, quit'; sun daina = they no longer
- zama
- verbzauna · form: verbal noun · 'living, staying'
- a
- preposition'at, in'
- nan
- adverb'here'
What changes from one language to the other: English × Hausa
English negates and adds ‘anymore’; Hausa uses one verb, ‘daina’, with no negation.
Example conversation
— Sun daina zama a nan.
— They don't live here anymore.
— Kun san inda suka koma?
— Do you know where they went?