Idan kina buƙatar abu, ki gaya min me kike so in kawo miki.

The sentence:

Idan kina buƙatar abu, ki gaya min me kike so in kawo miki.

literally breaks down as:

• Idan – if / when
• kina – you (feminine, singular) are (progressive aspect)
• buƙatar – need of / needing (a noun meaning “need”)
• abu – a thing, something

Idan kina buƙatar abu – If/when you (fem.) are in need of something…

• ki – imperative marker “you (fem. sg.), do …”
• gaya – tell
• min – to me

ki gaya min – tell me

• me – what
• kike – you (fem. sg.) are (progressive aspect)
• so – wanting/liking

me kike so – what you (fem.) are wanting → “what you want”

• in – that I (should), subjunctive “I should …”
• kawo – bring
• miki – to you (fem. sg.)

so in kawo miki – that I (should) bring to you

So a more literal overall rendering is:

If you (fem.) are in need of something, tell me what you are wanting that I should bring to you.

Each form has a different grammatical role:

• kina – you (f.sg.) are

  • This is the subject in the first clause and marks progressive aspect:
    
    • kina buƙatar abu – you are needing something / you need something

• ki – imperative “you (f.sg.), do …”

  • This is used for commands/requests addressed to a woman:
    
    • ki gaya – tell!

• kike – you (f.sg.) are (again, progressive)

  • Subject in the relative clause:
    
    • me kike so – what you are wanting

• miki – to you (f.sg.)

  • This is an indirect object pronoun:
    
    • kawo miki – bring (it) to you

So Hausa uses:

• one form to mark subject + aspect (kina, kike),
• another for imperative 2nd person (ki),
• and another for indirect object “to you” (miki),

even though they all ultimately refer to the same person “you”.

The sentence is addressed to a woman. Hausa distinguishes masculine and feminine in the 2nd person.

To a woman (as in the original):
> Idan kina buƙatar abu, ki gaya min me kike so in kawo miki.

Key feminine forms: kina, ki, kike, miki.

To a man, you would switch to masculine forms:

Idan kana buƙatar abu, ka gaya min me kake so in kawo maka.

Changes:

• kina → kana (you (m.sg.) are)
• ki → ka (masc. imperative “you, do …”)
• kike → kake (you (m.sg.) are)
• miki → maka (to you (m.sg.))

The rest stays the same.

Idan can often be translated as either “if” or “when”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Idan kina buƙatar abu…

it means roughly:

• If you need something… (polite, conditional)
  or
• Whenever you need something… (repeated situation)

So you can think of Idan here as “if/whenever” introducing a condition.

• buƙata – a noun meaning “need, requirement”.
• buƙatar – is the construct/genitive form: “need of …”
• abu – a thing, something.

Together:

buƙatar abu – need of a thing → need something / a need for something.

So:

• kuna buƙata can mean “you have a need”,
• kuna buƙatar abu specifies “you need some thing (unspecified)”.

In everyday speech, kuna/kina buƙatar abu is a natural way to say “you need something / you are in need of something.”

• gaya – to tell (someone)
• ki – feminine singular imperative: “you (fem.), do …”
• min – to me (indirect object pronoun)

So ki gaya min literally is:

you (fem.), tell to-me → “tell me”.

Why min and not ni?

• ni is the independent pronoun “I, me” (used mainly as a subject or for emphasis).
• min is the clitic/short form of mani, meaning “to me”, used right after the verb as an object.

Examples:

• Ka faɗa min gaskiya. – Tell me the truth.
• Sun ba ni kuɗi. – They gave me money. (ni here is a direct object)

In this sentence you need an indirect object (“to me”), so min is correct.

me kike so breaks down as:

• me – what (question word)
• kike – you (f.sg.) are (progressive)
• so – wanting/liking

Literally:

me kike so – what are you wanting? → “what do you want?”

It’s a very common pattern:

me + subject (with aspect) + verb

Other examples:

• Me kake yi? – What are you (m.sg.) doing?
• Me kuke faɗi? – What are you (pl.) saying?
• Me suke so? – What do they want?

In the full sentence:

ki gaya min me kike so in kawo miki.
tell me what you want (me) to bring you.

me kike so is the object of gaya: “tell me what you want”.

so covers several related meanings, depending on context:

1. to like / be fond of / love

   • Ina son ki. – I love you (fem.) / I like you.

2. to want (especially with things you can get, take, or be given)

   • Me kake so? – What do you want?
   • Ina son ruwa. – I want water. (also “I like water” depending on context)

In me kike so in kawo miki, the natural English translation is “want”:

what you want me to bring you.

So: so ≈ “like / want / love”, and context tells you which English verb fits best.

Here in is a subjunctive marker for 1st person singular: it means roughly “that I (should)”.

• kawo – bring
• in kawo – that I bring / for me to bring

So:

me kike so in kawo miki

literally:

what you are wanting that I bring to you.

Compare:

• Ina son in je. – I want to go. (literally: “I want that I go.”)
• Su na so in taimaka musu. – They want me to help them.

So in here does not mean “if” in this clause; it links the verb so (“want”) to the action that is wanted, and encodes the subject “I”.

Both are indirect object pronouns, meaning “to X”, but they refer to different persons:

• min – to me (short form of mani)
• miki – to you (feminine singular)

Position:

• They usually come immediately after the verb (or verb phrase):

  • gaya min – tell me
  • kawo miki – bring (it) to you (fem.)
  • ba su – give them
  • ba ni – give me
  • faɗa mata – tell her

In the sentence:

ki gaya min – tell me
in kawo miki – that I bring (it) to you (fem.)

So min = recipient “me”, miki = recipient “you (fem.)”, both placed right after their verbs.