Learn Hardcore Hausa: Muna son mu ci abinci tare da iyali da yamma. - We like to eat food together with the family in the evening.

In this sentence, muna son… is like saying “we (are) wanting / we want …” in a general or present-time sense. You cannot replace muna with plain mu here; mu on its own doesn’t carry tense/aspect. You need muna to show the present/progressive meaning.

Why do we have both muna and mu in the same sentence? Isn’t Muna son mu ci abinci like saying “we want we eat food”?

It does look redundant from an English point of view, but in Hausa this is normal. The structure is:

Muna son … = We want / we like …
mu ci abinci = that we eat food / for us to eat food

So the whole thing is like:
“We want that we eat food …” = “We want to eat food …”

Hausa often repeats the subject pronoun in a subordinate clause like this. Compare:

Ina so in tafi. – I want to go. (literally “I want that I go”)
Kana so ka ci. – You want to eat. (literally “You want that you eat”)
Muna so mu tafi. – We want to go.

So muna marks the main clause (“we are wanting”), and mu is the subject of the embedded clause (“we eat”). Both are needed in this pattern.

Could we say Muna son cin abinci instead of Muna son mu ci abinci? What is the difference between mu ci abinci and cin abinci?

Yes, both are correct, but the grammar is slightly different:

Muna son mu ci abinci
- Uses a full clause as the complement.
- mu ci = that we eat (finite verb with a subject pronoun).
Muna son cin abinci
- Uses a verbal noun (masdar) as the complement.
- ci (eat) → cin (the eating).
- Literally: “We are wanting the eating of food.”

In meaning, they are very close: “We want to eat food.”
Stylistically:

mu ci construction feels a bit more clause-like (“that we should eat”).
cin abinci is more noun-like and a bit more compact.

You will hear both patterns a lot in everyday Hausa.

Why is it son and not so in Muna son mu ci abinci?

The base word is so, which can mean “love, liking, desire, want.”
When it comes after a pronoun like ni, kai, shi, mu, it usually appears as son because of a genitive/linking -n:

ina so vs ina son abinci
muna so vs muna son mu ci abinci

Two ways to think about it:

Historical/structural view
- son = so + -n, where -n is a linker/genitive marker (similar to “of”).
- ina son abinci ≈ “I am in a state of liking of food.”
Practical learner view
- Memorize expressions like:
  - Ina son abinci. – I like/want food.
  - Muna son mu ci abinci. – We want to eat food.

So: use so as the dictionary form, but expect son after pronouns before a noun or clause.

What is the difference between Muna son abinci and Muna son mu ci abinci?

Muna son abinci.
- Literally: “We like/want food.”
- General preference or desire for food.
Muna son mu ci abinci.
- Literally: “We want that we eat food.”
- More clearly about the action of eating now / at some time, not just liking food in general.
- Equivalent to “We want to eat (some) food.”

So son abinci can be about liking or wanting food as a thing, while son mu ci abinci is specifically about wanting to perform the action of eating.

Why do we say tare da iyali and not just da iyali? What does tare da add?

da = “with / and” (very general).
tare = “together.”
tare da = “together with.”

So:

da iyali – with (the) family (neutral “with”).
tare da iyali – together with (the) family (emphasizes doing it together as a group).

In many contexts you could say either:

Muna son mu ci abinci da iyali.
Muna son mu ci abinci tare da iyali.

The version with tare da highlights the togetherness a bit more, which fits well with eating as a shared activity.

How should I understand da yamma at the end? Is it literally “with evening,” or does it mean “in the evening”?

da yamma is an idiomatic time expression meaning “in the evening / at nightfall.”

Hausa uses da + time-of-day word very often:

da safe – in the morning
da rana – in the afternoon / daytime
da dare – at night
da yamma – in the evening

So in this sentence:

tare da iyali da yamma = “with the family in the evening.”

Here da is not functioning as “and” but as a time preposition.

How would I say “with my family” instead of just “with (the) family” in this sentence?

You add a possessive suffix to iyali:

iyali – family
iyalīna / iyalina – my family (you will see spelling variation)

So the phrase becomes:

tare da iyalina – together with my family

Whole sentence:

Muna son mu ci abinci tare da iyalina da yamma.
= We want to eat food with my family in the evening.

Similarly:

iyalinka – your (m.sg) family
iyalinku – your (pl) family
iyalinsa – his family, etc.

Is the word order in Muna son mu ci abinci tare da iyali da yamma fixed, or can I move da yamma (in the evening) to another place?

The basic order is S – V – O – (other phrases), and this sentence follows that:

S: Muna (we are)
V + comp: son mu ci abinci (want that we eat food)
Other phrases: tare da iyali da yamma (with family in the evening)

Time expressions like da yamma are quite flexible. For example:

Da yamma, muna son mu ci abinci tare da iyali.
Muna son mu ci abinci da yamma tare da iyali.

All of these are understandable. Placing da yamma at the end, as in the original, is very natural and common in speech.

How do you pronounce ci, abinci, and iyali? The letters don’t look English.

Rough pronunciation guide:

ci
- c in Hausa is pronounced like English “ch” in church.
- ci ≈ “chee”.
abinci
- a-BIN-ci
- bi like “bee”, ci like “chee”.
- ≈ “ah-BEEN-chee”.
iyali
- i-YA-li
- initial i is like “ee”.
- ≈ “ee-YA-lee”.

So the core phrase ci abinci sounds roughly like “chee ah-BEEN-chee.”

If I want to say just “We will eat food with family in the evening,” without the idea of “want,” how would I say that?

Use the future marker za with mu:

Za mu ci abinci tare da iyali da yamma.
= We will eat food with (the) family in the evening.

Breakdown:

za mu – we will
ci abinci – eat food
tare da iyali – together with (the) family
da yamma – in the evening

So:

Muna son mu ci abinci… – We want to eat food…
Za mu ci abinci… – We will eat food…