Learn Hardcore Hausa: Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari? - What do you plural want me to bring you from town?

Me – what (question word)
ku-ke – you (pl) – IMPERFECTIVE aspect, usually glossed as you (pl) are / you (pl) do
so – want / like (verb)
in – a subjunctive marker meaning roughly that I should / for me to
kawo – bring
mu-ku – for/to you (pl) (mu = to/for us; but in these bound forms, muku is an indirect object pronoun meaning to you (pl))
daga – from
gari – town / city

Putting it very literally:
“What are you (pl) wanting that I bring to you from town?”
which corresponds idiomatically to the given meaning in English.

What exactly does kuke mean? Is it one word or two?

Kuke is written as one word, but it contains two pieces:

ku – 2nd person plural subject pronoun: you (plural)
-ke – imperfective aspect marker

So kuke together is “you (pl) are / you (pl) do” in the sense of ongoing, habitual, or general actions.

In this sentence kuke so is like “you (pl) want / you (pl) are wanting.”

Why is it kuke so and not just ku so or something else?

In Hausa, verbs normally need an aspect marker (like -ke, -na, -ta, -ka, etc.) to show whether the action is incomplete, habitual, or complete.

kuke so = ku (you pl) + -ke (imperfective) + so (want)
→ “you (pl) want / are wanting”

Just ku so would be ungrammatical in standard Hausa; you can’t normally put the subject pronoun directly in front of the verb without the appropriate tense/aspect form.

For 2nd person plural, the usual imperfective form is:

ku
- -ke → kuke

So kuke so is the correct, standard way to say “you (pl) want.”

What is the role of in here? Is it the same word as “if” in Hausa?

The in in this sentence is not the conditional in (“if”); it is a subjunctive marker for the 1st person singular.

After verbs of wanting, asking, telling, etc., Hausa often uses a special form to mean “that I should … / for me to …”:

Me kuke so in kawo… → “What do you want me to bring…?”
Ina so in tafi. → “I want to go / I want that I should go.”

So in this sentence, in introduces a dependent clause with an action that I (the speaker) am expected to do.

There is also a different in that means “if”, but that one usually starts a conditional clause, e.g. In ka zo, zan tafi. – “If you come, I will go.”
Here, the meaning clearly fits the subjunctive “that I should bring”, not a condition.

Could I say na kawo muku instead of in kawo muku?

No, not in this sentence; it would change the meaning and be ungrammatical in context.

in kawo muku means roughly “that I should bring for you” (subjunctive/irrealis form after so “want”).
na kawo muku on its own is a perfective past meaning “I brought (for) you.”

If you said:

Me kuke so na kawo muku daga gari?

this can be heard in some dialects as an alternative to in kawo, but it’s more like using a different pattern where na functions as a subjunctive/1sg marker. In strict standard descriptions, in (or in/ni type forms) are preferred in this “want that I should do” construction.

So for a learner, the safest and most widely accepted form here is:

Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari?

What does muku mean, and how does it fit into the object‑pronoun system?

Muku is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to you / for you (plural)”.

Some common indirect object pronouns are:

mini – to/for me
maka / miki – to/for you (sg. masc / sg. fem)
masa / mata – to/for him / her
muna – to/for us
muku – to/for you (pl)
musu – to/for them

So:

in kawo muku = “for me to bring to you (pl)”

If you removed muku, it would still be grammatically possible:

Me kuke so in kawo daga gari? – “What do you want me to bring from town?”

But then you’d lose the explicit “for you”, which is part of the original nuance.

Why is kawo in the bare form, without any tense marker attached?

In Hausa, when a verb appears in a subordinate/subjunctive clause after certain verbs (like so “want”), it often appears in a kind of bare or infinitive‑like form:

Ina so in tafi. – “I want to go.” (not ina so in na tafi)
Sun ce a zo. – “They said (someone) should come.”

Here, in already tells us it’s “that I should …”, so we don’t add another tense/aspect marker to the verb kawo. It stays in its base form, similar to English “bring” in “want to bring”.

So in kawo is the normal pattern: subjunctive marker (in) + base verb (kawo).

What exactly does daga gari mean? Is gari “town” or “city”, and do I need a word for “the”?

daga means “from”
gari means broadly “town / city / settlement”

There is no separate word for “the” in Hausa; definiteness is usually inferred from context or expressed with other devices. So gari can mean “a town” or “the town”, depending on what both speakers already know.

daga gari therefore simply means “from town / from the town / from the city”, depending on what makes sense in context. English forces you to pick a vs the, but Hausa does not.

In everyday conversation, gari here is usually understood as “the town (we both have in mind)”, i.e. the local town or city you’re going to.

Is this sentence addressed to one person or more than one?

Formally, it is addressed to more than one person, because it uses ku- (2nd person plural):

kuke so – “you (pl) want”
muku – “to/for you (pl)”

However, in many parts of Hausa‑speaking West Africa, plural forms can also be used politely for a single respected person (like “vous” in French). So in real life, this sentence might be addressed:

to a group (several people), or
to one person politely, depending on context.

But grammatically, it’s 2nd person plural.

Can I use this sentence when speaking politely to an older person or someone I respect?

Yes. Using ku and muku is actually polite when addressing a single respected person, such as an elder, a teacher, or a superior.

So Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari? is a good, respectful way to ask that person what they would like you to bring from town.

With close friends or someone your own age (informally), you might instead use the singular:

Me kake so in kawo maka daga gari? (to a man)
Me kike so in kawo miki daga gari? (to a woman)

How would the sentence change if I were talking to only one person in an informal way?

You would switch both the subject and the indirect object pronouns to singular forms:

To a man (informal):

Me kake so in kawo maka daga gari?
- kake = ka (you sg. masc) + -ke (imperfective)
- maka = to/for you (sg. masc)

To a woman (informal):

Me kike so in kawo miki daga gari?
- kike = ki (you sg. fem) + -ke
- miki = to/for you (sg. fem)

Both mean the same thing as the original, but directed to a single person informally.

Is there a difference between Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari? and Me za ku so in kawo muku daga gari?

Yes, there is a nuance:

Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari?
Uses kuke (imperfective) → implies a general, present wanting. It’s the normal, natural way to ask in this context.
Me za ku so in kawo muku daga gari?
Uses za ku so (future) → more literally “What will you want me to bring you from town?”
This can sound slightly more speculative or about a future decision, and is less common in this kind of practical question.

In everyday speech when you’re about to go to town or planning a trip, Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari? is the preferred form.

Could I say Me kuke so na kawo muku daga gari? instead of Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari?

You may hear na used in place of in in some speech, but for a learner it’s better to stick with in here.

Standard / textbook‑friendly: Me kuke so in kawo muku daga gari?
Some speakers might say: Me kuke so na kawo muku daga gari?

In many descriptions of Hausa, in is the dedicated marker for “that I should …” after verbs like so “want”. Using na in that position can be dialectal or stylistic, and may confuse you later when you learn the different functions of na (possessive, perfective 1sg, etc.).

So the safest and clearest pattern to learn is:
[verb of wanting] + in + base verb → “want me to do X”.

Why is the question word Me at the beginning? Do I need any extra question particle?

In Hausa, wh‑words (question words like me “what”, wane “which”, ina “where”, etc.) usually appear at the beginning of the sentence:

Me kuke so…? – “What do you (pl) want…?”
Ina kuke zaune? – “Where do you live?”

You do not need an extra question particle; the question word plus rising intonation (in speech) is enough to mark it as a question.

So the fronted Me is normal, and the rest of the sentence follows the usual order:

Me (what) + kuke so (you pl want) + in kawo muku daga gari (that I bring you from town).