Learn Hardcore Hausa: A wata rana za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta. - One day we will go to the market together with the neighbours.

A can mean in / at / on depending on context.
With time expressions, A is very common:
- A yau – today
- A jiya – yesterday
- A mako mai zuwa – next week

So A wata rana literally feels like “On a certain day / One day”.

What does wata mean in wata rana, and why is it wata and not wani?

Wata is an indefinite marker meaning “a / some / certain” used with feminine nouns.

rana (day) is grammatically feminine in Hausa.
Feminine “a/certain” = wata
Masculine “a/certain” = wani

Examples:

wata rana – a day / one day (feminine noun)
wani lokaci – some time / a time (masculine noun)

So wata agrees in gender with rana.

What exactly does rana mean in this sentence? Is it just “day”?

Yes, rana basically means “day” (also “sun” in some contexts).

In A wata rana, it functions as “a day / one day”, and the whole phrase is an idiomatic way to start a story or describe a future time in a vague way, much like English:

“One day, we will go…”

How does za mu je express the future? Can I think of it as “we will go”?

Yes. za mu je means “we will go”.

za – future marker (roughly “will / going to”)
mu – we (subject pronoun)
je – verb “to go”

Pattern:

za + pronoun + verb
- za ni je – I will go
- za ka je – you (m.sg.) will go
- za ta je – she will go
- za mu je – we will go

So za mu je = “we will go” in the future.

Why is the pronoun mu after za and not before it, like mu za je?

In standard Hausa future tense, the normal order is:

za + subject pronoun + verb

So:

za mu je – we will go
ba za mu je ba – we will not go

Putting mu before za (like mu za je) is not the usual grammatical pattern for this future construction. The particle za “hooks onto” the pronoun that follows it.

What is the difference between je and tafi when talking about “going”?

Both je and tafi can translate as “go”, but there are some tendencies:

je often appears with a destination directly:
- za mu je kasuwa – we will go (to) the market
- na je gida – I went home
tafi is also very common; it can focus more on the act of leaving / going away:
- za mu tafi kasuwa – we will go (head off) to the market
- ya tafi – he left / he went

In many everyday contexts, je and tafi are both acceptable with place names or locations. In your sentence, za mu je kasuwa is natural and idiomatic.

There is no word for “to” before kasuwa. How does Hausa say “go to the market” without “to”?

Hausa often omits a separate “to” when the destination follows the verb directly.

je kasuwa – go (to) the market
je gida – go (home)
tashi makaranta – go to school / set off for school

The preposition zuwa can sometimes mean “to/towards”, but in je kasuwa, adding zuwa (je zuwa kasuwa) is generally redundant or unidiomatic in everyday speech. The bare noun after je already implies direction.

Is kasuwa “the market” or “a market”? There is no “the” or “a” in the sentence.

Hausa does not use separate words for “the” and “a” the way English does. The noun kasuwa by itself can be understood as:

“the market” (the usual, known market in town)
or “a market” (if the context is not specific)

In many real situations, kasuwa with no extra marking will naturally be understood as “the market (we normally go to)”. If you needed to be very specific, you could add more information, e.g.:

kasuwa ta gari – the town market
kasuwar nan – this (particular) market

What does tare da mean exactly? Could I just say da makwabta?

tare da means “together with” or “along with”.

tare – together
da – with

So tare da makwabta emphasizes the togetherness: “together with the neighbors”.

You can say da makwabta, which simply means “with the neighbors”. The difference is:

tare da makwabta – “(go) together with the neighbors” (clear sense of joint action)
da makwabta – “with the neighbors” (less explicit about the idea of “as a group, together”)

In many cases they overlap, but tare da is more explicit about “together”.

What does makwabta mean, and is it singular or plural?

makwabta means “neighbors” and it’s plural.

Singular: makwabci – (a) neighbor
Plural: makwabta – neighbors

So tare da makwabta = “together with (the) neighbors”.

Does A wata rana have to be at the beginning, or can I move it, like Za mu je kasuwa wata rana tare da makwabta?

You can move wata rana around; Hausa word order is fairly flexible for time expressions. For example:

A wata rana za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta.
Wata rana za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta.
Za mu je kasuwa wata rana tare da makwabta.

All are possible, though starting with (A) wata rana feels very natural when telling a story or describing a vague future time. Putting it at the start gives it extra emphasis, much like English: “One day, we will go…”

How would I say this sentence in the negative: “One day we will not go to the market with the neighbors”?

To negate the future in Hausa, you use ba … ba around the za + pronoun part:

Ba za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta ba.

Breakdown:

ba – first negative marker
za mu je – we will go
kasuwa tare da makwabta – to the market with the neighbors
ba – closing negative marker

So:

Ba za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta ba. – We will not go to the market with the neighbors.

Does mu in za mu je include the person I’m talking to (inclusive “we”)?

mu is just “we”, and whether it includes the listener depends on context, not grammar.

It can be inclusive (“you and I and maybe others”):
- A wata rana za mu je kasuwa tare da makwabta. (speaker + listener + neighbors)
Or exclusive (“we, but not you”) if the context clearly excludes the listener.

In your sentence, it very naturally sounds inclusive (we all will go together).

How is kasuwa pronounced, and where is the stress?

kasuwa is typically pronounced roughly as:

ka-SU-wa

Details:

a as in “father” but shorter.
u as in “put” (a short “oo” sound).
Final a again like a short “a” in “father”.

Stress commonly falls on the middle syllable: ka-SU-wa.