Learn Hardcore Hausa: Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti. - We will take her to the doctor at the hospital.

A very literal gloss would be:
“Will we take her to the place-of doctor at hospital.”
Natural English: “We will take her to the doctor at the hospital.”

Why do we need za mu for the future? Could I just say Mu kai ta wurin likita to mean “We will take her to the doctor”?

No. Za mu is what clearly marks future or intended action.

Za mu kai ta wurin likita – We will / are going to take her to the doctor. (a future plan)
Mu kai ta wurin likita. – more like Let’s take her to the doctor / We should take her to the doctor (a suggestion / jussive).

So:

Use za + pronoun (za mu, zan, za su, etc.) for a straightforward future meaning.
Mu kai ta… without za usually sounds like a proposal/command, not a neutral future statement.

In English we say “take her”, but in Hausa it’s kai ta. Can I put ta before the verb, like Za mu ta kai wurin likita?

No. In Hausa, the short object pronoun (like ta = her) comes after the verb, not before it.

The normal order in your sentence type is:

[Future marker + subject] + [verb] + [object pronoun] + [place]

So:

✅ Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti. – correct
❌ Za mu ta kai wurin likita… – incorrect word order

Other examples:

Za su ga shi gobe. – They will see him tomorrow.
Za ku taimake mu nan gaba. – You (pl.) will help us later.

In each case, the object pronoun is after the verb: ga shi, taimake mu, kai ta, etc.

I learned that ta means “she”. How can it mean “her” here?

Ta is one of the short pronouns in Hausa, and it can function as:

a subject:
- Ta tafi. – She went.
an object:
- Na ganta. – I saw her.

In Za mu kai ta wurin likita:

The subject is mu (we), coming after za.
ta comes after the verb kai, so here it is the object (her).

If you want to emphasise “her” as an independent pronoun, you use ita:

Ita za mu kai wurin likita. – It’s her that we will take to the doctor (emphatic / contrastive).

But in the simple, neutral sentence, kai ta (take her) is the normal form, not kai ita.

What does wurin likita literally mean, and why do we need wurin?

Literally:

wuri = place, location
wurin likita = the doctor’s place / at the doctor’s place

However, in Hausa, wurin + person is a very common way to say “to [see] that person” or “to that person’s place”, especially for people who provide a service.

So:

Na je wurin likita. – I went to the doctor.
Sun tafi wurin malam. – They went to (see) the teacher.
Za mu kai ta wurin likita. – We’ll take her to the doctor.

If you said kai ta likita without wurin, it would sound wrong or at least very unnatural; the doctor needs to be expressed as a place/goal of the movement, and wurin does that job.

Is wurin here like the English preposition “to”? Are there other ways to say “to the doctor”?

Wurin is not exactly a preposition; it is a noun “place”, but it’s used so often in this structure that it behaves like “to/at [someone’s place]”.

Common ways to express “to the doctor”:

wurin likita
- Za mu kai ta wurin likita. – We’ll take her to the doctor.
  This is very natural and common.
ga likita (with verbs like kai, ba, etc.)
- Ya kai ni ga likita. – He took me to the doctor.
  Here ga works like “to, towards”.
gun likita
- gun is basically a variation of wurin, common in many dialects.
- Za mu kai ta gun likita. – also means to the doctor.

So wurin likita is probably the most textbook-clear and common in this meaning, but ga likita and gun likita also appear in real speech.

What does the preposition a do in a asibiti, and is it necessary?

a is a general location preposition, usually translated as “in / at / on”.

a asibiti – at the hospital / in hospital
a gida – at home
a kasuwa – at the market

In your sentence:

Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti.
We will take her to the doctor at the hospital.

Here a asibiti tells us where the doctor is: at the hospital.

Is a necessary?

If you only want to say “We’ll take her to the hospital”, you can say:
- Za mu kai ta asibiti. (no wurin likita)
If you only want “We’ll take her to the doctor”, you can say:
- Za mu kai ta wurin likita. (no a asibiti)

When you include asibiti as a place phrase, putting a before it (a asibiti) is the normal pattern for “at/in the hospital”.

There is no word for “the” in this sentence. How do I say “to the doctor at the hospital” as opposed to “to a doctor at a hospital”?

Hausa doesn’t have a separate word like English “the”, and bare nouns like likita and asibiti can be understood as “a” or “the” depending on context.

In many situations:

wurin likita = “the doctor” (the one we’re talking about)
a asibiti = “at the hospital” (the hospital that makes sense from context)

If you really want to make definiteness explicit, you can use:

Demonstratives:
- wurin likitan nan – to this/that doctor
- a asibitin nan – at this/that hospital
Genitive / possessive:
- wurin likitanmu – to our doctor
- a asibitin Kano – at the Kano hospital
For a very clearly specific hospital, people may also say asibitin in context:
- Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibitin. – We’ll take her to the doctor at the (aforementioned) hospital.

But in everyday speech, Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti will almost always be understood as “to the doctor at the hospital”, not “some random doctor at some random hospital”, unless the context forces a different reading.

Can I change the order of wurin likita and a asibiti? For example, is Za mu kai ta a asibiti wurin likita OK?

The most natural order is the one you have:

Za mu kai ta [wurin likita] [a asibiti].

First the main goal of the movement (the doctor), then an additional location detail (that this is at the hospital).

Other possibilities:

Za mu kai ta asibiti wurin likita. – understandable, but a bit awkward/redundant-sounding.
Za mu kai ta a asibiti wurin likita. – this sounds strange and is not how people normally say it.

In practice, speakers either:

keep the order wurin likita a asibiti, or
drop one of the two place phrases (just asibiti or just wurin likita) if the other one already makes the context clear.

Does kai here have anything to do with the noun kai meaning “head”?

No. They are two different words that just happen to sound the same:

kai (noun) – head
- Kai na na ciwo. – My head hurts.
kai (verb) – to take / carry / deliver
- Za mu kai ta wurin likita. – We will take her to the doctor.

You can tell which one is being used by the grammar:

After za mu you expect a verb, so kai must be the verb “take”, not the noun “head”.
Likewise, if it appears with possessive or after a preposition, it’s more likely to be the noun: kan ta, kan tebur etc. (though note that head also has forms like kai/kan depending on position).

Is this sentence formal? How would it sound in everyday speech?

The sentence as written is neutral and perfectly fine in everyday speech.

In casual spoken Hausa, you will often hear some contractions:

Za mu → zamu
- Zamu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti.
kai ta is often pronounced almost like one word, kaita:
- Zamu kaita wurin likita a asibiti.

So in very natural speech you might hear:

Zamu kaita wurin likita asibiti.

Writing za mu kai ta (as separate words) is clearer for learners and fully correct.

Where would I put a time word like “tomorrow” in this sentence?

A common time word is gobe (tomorrow). You can place it in a few natural positions:

Before the future marker:
- Gobe za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti.
  → Tomorrow we will take her to the doctor at the hospital.
After the verb phrase:
- Za mu kai ta wurin likita a asibiti gobe.

Both are acceptable. The first (Gobe za mu…) is very common and often preferred when you want to highlight the time.