This page presents a complete original, fictional radio interview about farming and uneven rainfall. The programme, presenter, farmer, village, and agricultural experience are teaching material, not a real broadcast or agronomic recommendation. The passage shows how a presenter builds one answerable question at a time and how a farmer moves between completed experience, current practice, habitual strategy, and conditional advice.
The interview uses respectful singular ku for an adult male guest. That is an interactional choice, not a claim that every interview must use the same address pattern. See Broadcast Interview Question Design and Respectful Address and Titles.
Complete original interview
Mai gabatarwa: Masu sauraro, yau muna tattaunawa da Malam Lawal, wani manomi daga ƙauyen Rafin Dawa. Malam Lawal, barka da zuwa shirin. Manomi: Barkanku da warhaka. Na gode da gayyata. Mai gabatarwa: A bana, yaushe kuka fara shuka gero? Manomi: Na fara shuka a ƙarshen watan Yuni, bayan ruwan sama ya sauka sau biyu. Amma ruwan ya ɗauke kusan mako uku, don haka wasu iri ba su tsira ba. Mai gabatarwa: Wace hanya ce kuka bi domin rage asarar? Manomi: Na sake shuka wani ɓangare, sannan na yi ƙananan kwaruruka domin ruwa ya taru kusa da shuke-shuken. Yanzu nakan duba ƙasa kafin in ƙara taki. Mai gabatarwa: Wace shawara ce kuke ba matasan manoma idan ruwan sama bai daidaita ba? Manomi: Su guji shuka dukkan irin da suke da shi rana ɗaya. Idan sun raba shukar gida biyu, sauyin ruwan ba zai shafi komai lokaci guda ba. Mai gabatarwa: Mun gode, Malam Lawal. Manomi: Ni ma na gode.
Presenter: Listeners, today we are speaking with Malam Lawal, a farmer from the fictional village of Rafin Dawa. Malam Lawal, welcome to the programme. Farmer: Greetings to you. Thank you for the invitation. Presenter: This year, when did you begin planting millet? Farmer: I began planting at the end of June, after rain had fallen twice. But the rain stopped for almost three weeks, so some seeds did not survive. Presenter: What method did you use to reduce the loss? Farmer: I replanted one section, then made small furrows so that water would collect near the plants. Now I usually inspect the soil before adding more fertiliser. Presenter: What advice do you give young farmers if rainfall is not steady? Farmer: They should avoid planting all the seed they have on one day. If they divide the planting into two batches, a change in rainfall will not affect everything at once. Presenter: Thank you, Malam Lawal. Farmer: Thank you too.
The English translation smooths ruwan ya ɗauke to “the rain stopped.” Literally, the rain “went away.” It also renders shukar gida biyu as “the planting into two batches”; gida biyu here organizes the operation into two parts, not two physical houses.
Opening the broadcast and identifying the guest
Masu sauraro, yau muna tattaunawa da Malam Lawal, wani manomi daga ƙauyen Rafin Dawa.
Listeners, today we are speaking with Malam Lawal, a farmer from Rafin Dawa village.
Masu sauraro orients an audio audience. Muna tattaunawa is first-person plural continuative: the presenter includes the programme team in the ongoing encounter. Wani manomi adds an appositional description, and daga ƙauyen establishes origin. The noun chain ƙauyen Rafin Dawa uses the masculine linker -n.
Malam Lawal, barka da zuwa shirin. — Barkanku da warhaka. Na gode da gayyata.
Malam Lawal, welcome to the programme. — Greetings to you. Thank you for the invitation.
The exchange is (polite broadcast) rather than casual peer banter. The host directs barka da zuwa to the named guest, while the guest’s barkanku addresses the presenters respectfully or collectively. Inclusive barkanmu can instead greet a shared broadcast audience, as in Masu sauraro, barkanmu da wannan lokaci. The completed na gode is lexicalized as the normal gratitude expression; it is not a report about a bounded past thanking event.
A focused time question and a bounded answer
A bana, yaushe kuka fara shuka gero?
This year, when did you begin planting millet? (respectful singular address)
Fronted a bana restricts the time period before yaushe asks for the point within it. Kuka is the second-person plural/respectful relative completive selected in a content question. It is not an optional pronoun: it packages the addressee and TAM together.
Na fara shuka a ƙarshen watan Yuni, bayan ruwan sama ya sauka sau biyu.
I began planting at the end of June, after rain had fallen twice.
First-person completive na fara presents the start as bounded. Bayan introduces the earlier rainfall; ya sauka is third-person masculine singular because ruwan sama controls masculine agreement. Sau biyu counts occurrences, not an amount of water.
Amma ruwan ya ɗauke kusan mako uku, don haka wasu iri ba su tsira ba.
But the rain stopped for almost three weeks, so some seeds did not survive.
The contrastive amma overturns an inference that two rains guaranteed a steady season. Don haka explicitly links the dry interval to the consequence. Plural negative completive ba su tsira ba encloses the predicate. Wasu iri limits the loss; the farmer does not claim that every seed failed.
Question design: one method, then its explanation
Wace hanya ce kuka bi domin rage asarar?
What method did you use to reduce the loss? (literal structure: which method is-it you followed...)
Feminine wace ... ce agrees with hanya. The focused content phrase triggers relative completive kuka bi. The question asks for one coherent task—method—not method, cost, government policy, and blame in the same turn.
Na sake shuka wani ɓangare, sannan na yi ƙananan kwaruruka domin ruwa ya taru kusa da shuke-shuken.
I replanted one section, then made small furrows so that water would collect near the plants.
Repeated first-person completive na marks two completed interventions, ordered by sannan. Purpose domin ruwa ya taru uses third-person subjunctive ya: the accumulation is the intended result of making the furrows. Shuke-shuken is definite through its final linker/definiteness form and refers to the crop already under discussion.
Habit and conditional advice
Yanzu nakan duba ƙasa kafin in ƙara taki.
Now I usually inspect the soil before adding more fertiliser.
Habitual nakan combines first-person reference with repeated practice. After kafin, first-person subjunctive in marks the not-yet-realized later action. English learners often mistake in for an independent word meaning “I”; here it is the first-person singular subjunctive subject–TAM form.
Wace shawara ce kuke ba matasan manoma idan ruwan sama bai daidaita ba?
What advice do you give young farmers if rainfall is not steady?
Focused wace shawara ce is followed by respectful relative continuative kuke. In the construction ba mutum shawara “give someone advice,” matasan manoma is the recipient. In the condition, negative completive bai daidaita ba agrees with masculine ruwan sama.
Su guji shuka dukkan irin da suke da shi rana ɗaya.
They should avoid planting all the seed they have on one day.
Third-person plural subjunctive su guji gives advice about the young farmers. The relative da suke da shi has plural subject suke, while object shi resumes singular/mass-like iri “seed.” The reference chain is recoverable because the noun is adjacent.
Idan sun raba shukar gida biyu, sauyin ruwan ba zai shafi komai lokaci guda ba.
If they divide the planting into two batches, a change in rainfall will not affect everything at once.
The real condition uses idan plus plural completive sun raba. Its result has masculine negative future ba zai ... ba, agreeing with sauyi, not with the plural farmers. For the pattern, see Conditional in and idan.
Reusable interview patterns
A bana, yaushe kuka fara girbi?
This year, when did you begin harvesting? (respectful singular or plural)
Wace hanya ce kuka bi domin kiyaye amfanin gonar?
What method did you use to protect the crop?
Wace shawara ce kuke ba sabbin manoma?
What advice do you give new farmers?
These frames are reusable, but a presenter should not imply that one farmer’s experience establishes a regional climate trend or universal farming rule.
Common Mistakes
1. Switching respectful agreement mid-interview
❌ Malam Lawal, yaushe kuka fara shuka, kuma me kake yi yanzu?
Inconsistent—the question switches from respectful kuka to singular kake.
✅ Malam Lawal, yaushe kuka fara shuka, kuma me kuke yi yanzu?
Malam Lawal, when did you begin planting, and what are you doing now?
2. Omitting the marker after the guest’s subject
❌ Ni duba ƙasa kafin ƙara taki.
Incorrect finite structure—the subject and time/aspect relations are missing.
✅ Nakan duba ƙasa kafin in ƙara taki.
I usually inspect the soil before adding more fertiliser.
3. Using plain completive in a focused question
❌ Wace hanya ce kun bi?
Incorrect in this focus construction—use relative completive kuka.
✅ Wace hanya ce kuka bi?
What method did you use?
4. Treating advice as a proverb
❌ ‘Kada ka shuka komai rana ɗaya’ sanannen karin maganar Hausa ne.
Unsupported attribution—the interview advice is not thereby a traditional proverb.
✅ Malam Lawal ya ba da shawarar a raba shuka gida biyu.
Malam Lawal advised dividing the planting into two batches.
Key Takeaways
- Respectful ku agreement remains stable across the host’s questions.
- Content questions use forms such as relative completive kuka, not a bare verb after the guest’s name.
- The farmer distinguishes completed experience (na), habit (nakan), purpose (ya), and conditional consequence (ba zai ... ba).
- Reference changes with role: shi resumes seed, while zai agrees with the change in rainfall.
- A single interview is attributed experience, not proof of a general climate or farming claim.
Related Topics
- Radio and Television PresentationB2 — Shape Hausa scripts, transitions, interviews, and delivery so listeners and viewers can understand them on first hearing.
- Broadcast Interview Question DesignC2 — Design fair, audible Hausa broadcast questions that establish context, control presuppositions, and invite answers useful to a public audience.
- Respectful Address and TitlesA2 — Choose Hausa titles, vocatives, names, and respectful second-person forms according to role, age, gender, familiarity, and setting.
- me: Asking WhatA2 — Use me in Hausa subject, object, and identification questions while selecting relative TAM from the clause’s information structure.
- kan as a Habitual MarkerB1 — Use Hausa's joined -kan subject forms to present an action or situation as a characteristic recurrence rather than one event in progress.
- Conditional in and idanA2 — Build open Hausa conditions with in and idan, selecting independent TAM and polarity in the condition and its result.