Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ba ta son yara su fita waje da dare ba. - Mother does not want the children to go outside at night.

So the structure is roughly:
Mother not she wanting children they go-out outside with-night not.
= “The mother doesn’t want the children to go outside at night.”

Why is ba used twice – at the beginning and at the end of the sentence?

Hausa negation for full clauses typically uses a pair of ba’s:

One ba at (or near) the beginning of the clause
Another ba at the end of the clause

In this sentence:

First ba: Uwa ba ta son …
Second ba: … da dare ba.

Together, ba … ba work like a “negation bracket” around the clause, similar in effect to English “not” but structurally different.

If you remove them:

Uwa ta son yara su fita waje da dare.
→ “The mother wants/likes the children to go outside at night.”

Adding ba … ba negates the whole statement.

Why is it ta and not ya before son? How does gender work here?

In Hausa, the 3rd person singular subject pronoun agrees with grammatical gender:

ya = he / it (masculine)
ta = she / it (feminine)

The noun uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine, so you must use ta:

Uwa ta son … / Uwa ba ta son … – “The mother (she) wants/doesn’t want …”

If the subject were masculine, for example baba (father), you would use ya:

Baba ba ya son yara su fita waje da dare ba.
→ “The father doesn’t want the children to go outside at night.”

So ta here is required by the feminine gender of uwa.

What is the difference between so and son in Hausa, and why is it son here?

Both forms come from the same verb so (“to like / to want”), but they behave differently in sentences:

so – bare verb form, often used when there is no explicit object
- Ba na so. – “I don’t like (it) / I don’t want (it).”
son – a form used when “liking/wanting” takes an object, especially a noun or clause
- Ina son yara. – “I like children.”
- Ba ta son yara su fita waje da dare ba. – “She doesn’t want the children to go outside at night.”

Here, the “thing being wanted” is the whole idea yara su fita waje da dare, so son is used. A good way to feel it is:

son X ≈ “the wanting/liking of X”

Why is it ba ta son and not ba tana son or ba ta so?

Affirmative and negative patterns differ:

Affirmative (progressive/habitual) with “tana”:
- Uwa tana son yara. – “The mother likes/wants the children.”
Negative of that pattern:
- Uwa ba ta son yara ba. – “The mother doesn’t like/want the children.”

In the negative, the -na element in tana drops, so you get ba ta … ba, not ba tana … ba.

As for ba ta so vs ba ta son:

Ba ta so. – “She doesn’t like/want (it).” (no explicit object)
Ba ta son yara su fita … – “She doesn’t want the children to go out …” (there is an object)

So:

Object present → son
Object absent → so
Negative with a subject like uwa → ba ta … ba, not ba tana … ba

Why do we have both yara and su before fita? Isn’t that like saying “children they go out”?

Yes, literally it is like “children they go out,” but in Hausa this is normal in a structure like this.

Think of the sentence as two layers:

Main clause: Uwa ba ta son … ba – “The mother doesn’t want …”
Subordinate clause (what she doesn’t want): yara su fita waje da dare – “(that) the children go outside at night”

Inside that subordinate clause:

yara – “children” (the noun)
su – the subject pronoun “they,” which is required before the verb fita

This is somewhat like English:

“She doesn’t want the children to go outside.”

In Hausa, the subject of that “to go” part is expressed with a pronoun (su) plus the noun (yara), especially in this kind of complement clause. So yara su fita is the natural way to say “for the children to go (out).”

Why is there no word like English “to” before “go outside”? How does Hausa express “for the children to go”?

English uses the infinitive “to go” to express this kind of clause. Hausa uses a different strategy:

A subject pronoun (here su)
Followed by the verb in a subjunctive/jussive-type form (here fita)

So English “for the children to go out” ≈ Hausa “yara su fita waje”. There is no separate word “to” like in English infinitives. The idea of “to” (as in “to do something”) is baked into the pattern [pronoun + verb] after verbs like so/son (want, like), iƙirari verbs (say, think, hope), etc.

Is fita waje redundant? Doesn’t fita already mean “go out”?

fita does mean “to go out / exit,” but combining it with waje (“outside”) is very natural and common:

fita – go out / leave / come out
waje – outside / outside area

Together, fita waje behaves a bit like English “go outside (outside).” In practice, waje:

Emphasizes the location outside, not just the act of leaving
Helps clarify that it’s “outside the house/inside area,” not just “leave (this room, this place)”

So:

su fita – they go out / they leave
su fita waje – they go outside (to the outside area)

It’s not wrong or strange; it’s the natural way to say “go outside.”

What does da dare literally mean, and can you also say a dare for “at night”?

Literally:

da – with / and / at (depending on context)
dare – night

So da dare ≈ “with night,” used idiomatically for “at night / in the night.”

You can also hear a dare:

a – at / in / on (preposition)
a dare – at night / in the night

Both da dare and a dare can mean “at night,” though da dare is extremely common and very natural in everyday speech. Context and regional style can affect which one you hear more often, but your sentence with da dare is completely standard.

Why is there no word for “the” in Uwa and yara? How do you say “a mother” vs “the mother,” “children” vs “the children”?

Hausa generally does not use a separate word for “the” like English. Nouns are often bare, and context tells you whether they mean a/an or the:

uwa can be “a mother,” “the mother,” or even “mother” (in a general sense).
yara can be “children” or “the children.”

In this sentence:

Uwa is understood as “the mother” (probably a specific mother in the context).
yara is understood as “the children” (likely her children or some known group).

If you really need to specify definiteness or possession, Hausa usually uses other strategies, such as:

Adding a possessive: ’yarta – “her child”; ’yanta – “her children”
Context or previous mention

So the lack of an article here is completely normal.

What tense or aspect does ba ta son express? Is it “doesn’t like,” “isn’t liking,” “won’t like,” or what?

Ba ta son … here expresses a present, general, or habitual kind of meaning, similar to English “doesn’t like / doesn’t want.”

Nuance:

It can describe a general preference / rule:
- “The mother (generally) doesn’t want the children going out at night.”
Or a present attitude in a given context:
- “Right now, the mother doesn’t want the children to go out tonight.”

It does not on its own mean a specific future event like “she will not want” (future), nor is it a progressive form like “is not wanting” (which English barely uses anyway). Think of it simply as present negative of “want/like”.

How would you say the positive version: “The mother wants the children to go outside at night”?

You can make it positive by removing the ba … ba negation:

Uwa ta son yara su fita waje da dare.

Or, using the progressive/habitual style which is very common:

Uwa tana son yara su fita waje da dare.

Both are understandable as “The mother wants the children to go outside at night,” though tana son often feels more like a current or habitual attitude.

Can you drop Uwa and just say Ba ta son yara su fita waje da dare ba to mean “She doesn’t want the children to go outside at night”?

Yes. If the context already makes it clear who “she” is, you can absolutely say:

Ba ta son yara su fita waje da dare ba.

This simply means:

“She doesn’t want the children to go outside at night.”

Hausa, like English, often omits a noun if the pronoun alone is clear enough from context. Here ta (“she”) is sufficient once the person has been identified earlier in the conversation.