Hausa daga identifies a source: the point, area, person, time, or larger set from which something moves or is understood. English translations include from, out of, and sometimes since. The core direction is outward from a source, but Hausa often adds a relational noun—ciki “interior,” wuri “place,” or gare “side/relation”—to show exactly what kind of source is intended.
All unlabelled examples are (neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa). Ordinary boko writes ɓ, ɗ, ƙ and apostrophes but normally leaves tone and vowel length unmarked.
A place as the starting point
With a place name or an ordinary place noun, daga marks where motion, communication, or an object begins.
Jirgin ya tashi daga Kano da ƙarfe bakwai na safe.
The plane departed from Kano at seven in the morning.
Fatima ta dawo daga kasuwa da kayan miya.
Fatima returned from the market with soup ingredients.
An aiko mana da takardar daga babban ofishin Abuja.
A letter was sent to us from the head office in Abuja.
The complement names a source region or institution. Daga itself does not say whether the traveler was inside a building, beside it, or simply associated with the city. Context supplies that broad relation.
“Out of” uses daga cikin
When crossing from the interior of a container or bounded area, Hausa makes the interior explicit with ciki. Before a following noun, its linked form is cikin.
Ta ɗauko kwalbar daga cikin firiji.
She took the bottle out of the refrigerator.
Yaron ya fito daga cikin ɗakin da gudu.
The boy ran out of the room.
Ku cire tsofaffin takardun daga cikin akwatin.
Remove the old documents from the box. (addressing several people)
The structure is literally source + interior-of + noun: daga ciki-n firiji. English packs the boundary-crossing meaning into out of; Hausa keeps the noun-based spatial frame visible.
Compare location and source:
Kuɗin yana cikin aljihun rigata.
The money is inside my shirt pocket. (location)
Na ɗauko kuɗin daga cikin aljihun rigata.
I took the money out of my shirt pocket. (source from an interior)
The possessed spatial relation cikin aljihun rigata is the same. Adding daga changes that location into the source of a movement.
Sources involving people and pronouns
A noun denoting a person can occur as a source, often directly or through wurin “the place/presence of.” With pronouns, Standard Hausa normally uses gare or a relational noun bearing a possessive suffix rather than putting an independent pronoun immediately after daga.
Na karɓi saƙo daga Amina jiya da yamma.
I received a message from Amina yesterday evening.
Mun dawo daga wurin likita kafin azahar.
We returned from the doctor’s place before noon.
Wannan bayani ya fito daga gare shi, ba daga gare ni ba.
This information came from him, not from me.
| Referent | Relational source | Place-based alternative |
|---|---|---|
| me | daga gare ni | daga wurina |
| you, one male | daga gare ka | daga wurinka |
| you, one female | daga gare ki | daga wurinki |
| him / her | daga gare shi / daga gare ta | daga wurinsa / daga wurinta |
| them | daga gare su | daga wurinsu |
Daga gare shi presents him as the relational source. Daga wurinsa more concretely evokes his place, presence, office, or sphere, depending on context. Neither construction means that a person is a physical container.
More exact spatial frames
Other relational nouns can follow daga. Their joined forms preserve the geometry that bare English from may leave implicit.
Kyanwar ta fito daga ƙarƙashin motar.
The cat came out from under the car.
Na ji muryarsa daga bayan gidan.
I heard his voice from behind the house.
Ka matsa daga gaban ƙofar, don Allah.
Move away from in front of the door, please. (addressing one male)
In daga bayan gidan, bayan is “the back/behind of” and gidan is the linked form of gida. Do not reduce every spatial relation to a single preposition: the relational noun supplies the shape, while daga makes that shaped region the source.
Time ranges: from a starting point
Time can be conceptualized as a path. Daga marks its starting boundary, often paired with zuwa for the endpoint.
Ofishin yana buɗe daga ƙarfe takwas zuwa ƙarfe huɗu.
The office is open from eight o’clock to four o’clock.
Za a rufe hanyar daga ranar Litinin har zuwa Laraba.
The road will be closed from Monday through Wednesday.
Tun daga watan Janairu suke aikin nan.
They have been doing this work since January.
Tun daga highlights continuation from an earlier starting point. Har zuwa highlights reach through an endpoint. English since may correspond to tun daga, but not every English present-perfect sentence maps word for word onto the Hausa TAM system.
Membership and selection: one from a set
With cikin, daga also selects a member from a larger group. No physical exit is required; the group is treated as a conceptual container.
Aisha ɗaya ce daga cikin ma’aikatan da suka samu horo.
Aisha is one of the employees who received training.
Ka zaɓi ɗaya daga cikin waɗannan rigunan.
Choose one of these garments. (addressing one male)
This is an abstract extension of “out of the interior of a set.” English directly says one of; Hausa transparently uses ɗaya daga cikin.
Origin is not always English “from”
Abstract provenance readily takes daga, especially with a verb such as fito “come out/emerge.”
Shawarar ta fito daga taron shugabannin sassa.
The decision emerged from the meeting of department heads. (neutral careful style)
But English from also marks material composition, where Hausa commonly uses instrumental/associative da:
An yi kujerar da itacen mangwaro.
The chair was made from mango wood.
The English translation is not the selection rule. A source path or provenance favors daga; the material used to make an object is naturally introduced with da.
Daga versus zuwa
The two prepositions point in opposite directions.
For the complementary endpoint pattern, see zuwa and zuwa ga.
Motar ta tashi daga Kaduna zuwa Zariya da safe.
The vehicle traveled from Kaduna to Zaria in the morning.
Motar ta dawo daga Zariya da yamma.
The vehicle returned from Zaria in the evening.
Zuwa Zariya names the goal; daga Zariya names the source. With an explicit range, both ends can occur together: daga Kaduna zuwa Zariya “from Kaduna to Zaria.”
Common Mistakes
1. Putting an independent pronoun directly after daga
❌ Na ji labarin daga shi.
Incorrect — use gare before a pronominal person-source.
✅ Na ji labarin daga gare shi.
I heard the news from him.
2. Omitting daga from an interior source
❌ Ta cire rigar cikin akwatin.
Incorrect for the intended source reading — cikin alone does not mark movement out of the interior.
✅ Ta cire rigar daga cikin akwatin.
She removed the garment from inside the box.
3. Using daga for a destination
❌ Za mu tafi daga Bauchi gobe.
Incorrect for the intended meaning ‘to Bauchi’; this makes Bauchi the source.
✅ Za mu tafi zuwa Bauchi gobe.
We will travel to Bauchi tomorrow.
4. Adding an extra locative a after daga
❌ Sun dawo daga a Jos.
Incorrect — daga directly introduces the place source.
✅ Sun dawo daga Jos.
They returned from Jos.
5. Translating material English from with daga
❌ An yi teburin daga itace.
Avoid this English-shaped material expression in the neutral pattern taught here.
✅ An yi teburin da itace.
The table was made of wood.
Key Takeaways
- Daga marks a spatial, personal, temporal, or abstract source.
- Use daga cikin when the source is explicitly the interior of something.
- With pronouns, use relational frames such as daga gare shi or daga wurinta, not bare daga shi/ita.
- Relational nouns preserve geometry: daga ƙarƙashin, daga bayan, daga gaban.
- Daga ... zuwa... marks a source-to-goal or start-to-end range; tun daga emphasizes continuation since a starting point.
- English material from often corresponds to Hausa da, so translate the underlying role rather than the English preposition.
Related Topics
- a: At, In, and OnA1 — Use Hausa a to place events and entities in a spatial, temporal, or abstract domain, adding relational nouns when exact geometry matters.
- zuwa and zuwa ga: To and TowardA1 — Use zuwa for spatial, temporal, and abstract endpoints, and use zuwa ga or zuwa gare with explicit addressees and relational targets.
- da: With, By, and HavingA1 — Use Hausa da for accompaniment, instruments, means, manner, and possession without copying the many unrelated uses of English with and by.
- cikin: Inside and AmongA2 — Use the relational noun cikin for a bounded interior, membership in a set, time limits, and several abstract frames, with possessive suffixes for pronominal complements.
- wajen: At the Place Of, About, and AroundA2 — Distinguish wajen as the linked form of waje in place expressions, activity frames, and approximate quantities or times.
- Pronominal Complements of Relational NounsB1 — Attach possessive suffixes to Hausa relational nouns when a person or previously mentioned thing supplies the spatial or abstract reference point.