Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yanzu babu ruwa a gida. - Now there is no water at home.

babu ruwa a gida – There is no water in the house.
yanzu babu ruwa a gida – Now there is no water in the house / At the moment there’s no water in the house.

Adding yanzu just focuses on when the situation is true (now).

What does babu literally mean, and how is it used?

babu is a negative existential verb. Its main meanings are:

there is no / there isn’t
doesn’t exist / absent

Typical patterns:

babu ruwa – there is no water
babu wuta – there is no electricity / light
babu kowa – there is nobody
babu matsala – no problem

It’s not used like English “have” with people as subject (for that Hausa usually uses ina da / ba ni da etc.). Instead babu says that something doesn’t exist or isn’t present.

Why is there no separate word for “there is” or “is” in the sentence?

Hausa packs the meaning of “there is no / isn’t” into the single word babu.

English:

Now there is no water in the house.

Hausa:

yanzu – now
babu – there is no / isn’t
ruwa a gida – water in the house

So you don’t need extra words for “there” or “is”; babu already functions as the verb. In positive sentences, Hausa often uses akwai for “there is / there are”.

What is the function of a in a gida? Could I drop it?

a is a preposition that usually means in / at / on depending on context.

a gida – in the house / at home

If you drop a, the sentence sounds incomplete or at least less natural, because gida would just stand as a noun with no clear relationship to ruwa.

Correct / natural:

babu ruwa a gida – there is no water in the house

Without a, a listener would usually expect some other structure, so it’s better to keep the preposition.

Can gida mean both “house” and “home” here?

Yes. gida commonly means:

house / building
home (where someone lives, not just the physical building)

In yanzu babu ruwa a gida, depending on context it can be understood as:

There is no water in the (my/our) house
There is no water at home

Hausa doesn’t always mark this difference strongly; context usually tells you whether the speaker means “home” or just any house.

How would I say the positive version: “Now there is water in the house”?

Use akwai for the positive existential:

yanzu akwai ruwa a gida – Now there is water in the house.

Pattern:

yanzu – now
akwai – there is / there are
ruwa a gida – water in the house

So akwai is like “there is/are”, and babu is its negative pair, “there is no / there isn’t”.

What is the difference between babu and the ba … ba negative pattern I’ve seen in other sentences?

They are two different ways of negating:

babu – negative existential
- States that something doesn’t exist or isn’t present.
- babu ruwa a gida – There is no water in the house.
- babu kudi – There is no money / We have no money (available).
ba … ba – sentence-level negation
- Wraps around verbs or sometimes whole clauses.
- bana shan ruwa – I don’t drink water.
- ba zai zo ba – He will not come.

So for “there is no X (somewhere)”, babu is the natural choice. For “X does not do Y / X did not happen”, ba … ba (or other verb negatives) are used.

Could I say yanzu ba ruwa a gida ba instead of yanzu babu ruwa a gida?

No, that’s not a standard or natural way to negate this idea.

ba … ba usually needs a verb or a copular structure to wrap around; you can’t just insert ba before and after ruwa a gida to mean there is no water in the house.
The idiomatic way to say there is no X (somewhere) is with babu (or sometimes related forms like ba a samu ruwa ba, but that’s a different structure).

So you should stick with:

yanzu babu ruwa a gida – natural and correct.

Is the word order fixed, or can I move things around, like babu ruwa a gida yanzu?

There is some flexibility, especially with adverbs like yanzu:

yanzu babu ruwa a gida – very natural; time expression first.
babu ruwa a gida yanzu – also acceptable; puts emphasis at the end on now / at this time.

Main things that usually do not move:

babu should come before what is lacking: babu ruwa, babu kudi, etc.
The prepositional phrase a gida follows the thing it’s describing location for (ruwa).

So reordering is possible, but babu ruwa a gida should remain as a unit.

How is ruwa pronounced, and does it ever mean “rain”?

Pronunciation:

ruwa has two syllables: ru–wa.
r is a tapped or rolled r.
w is like English w.
Vowels are short: u as in put (but without rounding too much), a as in father (short).

Meaning:

Basic meaning: water (drinking water, water generally).
In many contexts, ruwa can also refer to rain, especially in weather talk, e.g.:
- ana ruwa – It’s raining.

In yanzu babu ruwa a gida, the default understanding is water in the house (e.g., no running water, no stored water), unless the context clearly suggests “rainwater coming into the house.”