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Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ku tafi gida da sauri. - You plural go home quickly.

Hardcore Hausa
/Lesson 4
/Ku tafi gida da sauri.

Ku tafi gida da sauri.

Ku tafi gida da sauri.

You (plural) go home quickly.

Breakdown of Ku tafi gida da sauri.

Questions & Answers about Ku tafi gida da sauri.

What does ku mean in this sentence?

Ku is the 2nd person plural pronoun used here as an imperative marker.

In Ku tafi gida da sauri, it shows that the command is addressed to more than one person:

Ku tafi… = You (plural) go… / Go (you all)…

Without ku, tafi by itself is usually a singular command:

Tafi gida da sauri. = Go home quickly (you, one person).

How would I say the same thing to just one person?

To one person, Hausa usually uses gendered singular forms:

To a man / boy:
Ka tafi gida da sauri.
To a woman / girl:
Ki tafi gida da sauri.

You can also say just Tafi gida da sauri. to one person, but that bare form often sounds more abrupt (stronger, more direct command), while ka tafi / ki tafi can feel a bit softer or more natural in many contexts.

Why is there no word for “to” before gida?

In Hausa, with verbs of motion like tafi (to go), you usually do not need a preposition like “to” before a place:

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tafi gida = go (to) home

tafi kasuwa = go (to) the market

tafi makaranta = go (to) school

So gida directly after tafi already carries the idea of “to home.”
You only add a preposition like zuwa (to/towards) in certain styles or for emphasis, e.g. tafi zuwa gida, but tafi gida is the normal everyday form.

What does da sauri literally mean, and how does it function?

Literally, da sauri means “with speed.”

da = with
sauri = speed, quickness

Together they form a manner expression meaning “quickly / fast.”
So Ku tafi gida da sauri is literally “You (all) go home with speed.”

Other similar expressions:

da karfi = with force / loudly / strongly
da gaggawa = with urgency / urgently

Where does da sauri normally go in the sentence? Can I move it?

The usual, neutral order is:

[Verb] + [Place] + [Manner]

So:

Ku tafi (verb) gida (place) da sauri (manner)

You might hear variations in speech for emphasis, but Ku tafi gida da sauri is the standard and most natural order.

Something like Ku tafi da sauri gida is not typical; most learners should stick to the usual verb + place + manner pattern.

Can I drop gida and just say Ku tafi da sauri?

Yes, you can say:

Ku tafi da sauri. = Go quickly.

This is grammatically correct, but the meaning changes:

Ku tafi gida da sauri. = Go home quickly. (specifically go home)
Ku tafi da sauri. = Go quickly. (go away / leave quickly; no specific destination mentioned)

So whether you can drop gida depends on whether “home” is important to the meaning you want.

Is tafi here an imperative or a past tense form?

In Ku tafi gida da sauri, tafi is an imperative verb form because it comes after ku (imperative plural marker).

To express past tense (went), Hausa normally uses a subject pronoun plus a tense marker:

Sun tafi gida da sauri. = They went home quickly.
Ya tafi gida da sauri. = He went home quickly.

So:

Ku tafi… → imperative / command: You (all) go…
Sun tafi… → perfect / past-like: They have gone / they went…

How can I make this command more polite, like “Please go home quickly”?

A very common way to add “please” in Hausa is to add don Allah (for God’s sake / please).

For a group:

Ku tafi gida da sauri, don Allah. = Please go home quickly.

You can also soften it further by changing the structure, for example:

Da fatan za ku tafi gida da sauri.
= I hope you (all) will go home quickly. (softer, more indirect)

But for most everyday contexts, just adding don Allah is enough.

How do I say “Don’t go home quickly”?

To make a negative command (negative imperative), Hausa commonly uses kada (or its shorter form kar).

For several people:

Kada ku tafi gida da sauri.
= Don’t go home quickly.

Shorter, more colloquial form:

Kar ku tafi gida da sauri.

For one person (male):

Kada ka tafi gida da sauri.

For one person (female):

Kada ki tafi gida da sauri.

Does gida mean “house” or “home” here?

Gida can mean both “house” and “home”, depending on context.

In Ku tafi gida da sauri, it is naturally understood as “home”, i.e. go back to where you live, not to some random building.

Other examples:

Ina gida. = I am at home.
Zan je gida. = I will go home.

So in most everyday contexts after tafi, gida is best translated as “home.”

Is ku always plural “you,” or can it mean something else?

In this sentence, ku is clearly 2nd person plural (“you all”) in an imperative.

However, in Hausa generally:

ku is the normal 2nd person plural pronoun:
- Ku kuna lafiya? = Are you (all) well?
It can also act as a kind of emphatic / focus marker in some structures, but for a learner, the main thing here is:

In Ku tafi gida da sauri, ku = you (plural), being commanded to do something.

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