Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yau ɗan uwa na yana gida saboda ya ji ciwo. - Today my brother is at home because he felt ill.

In everyday speech, ɗan uwa = brother (a male sibling).
It can also mean male relative / kinsman in some contexts (e.g. a cousin).
The usual word for sister is ’yar uwa (literally “daughter of (the same) parent”).

So in this sentence, ɗan uwa na is naturally understood as my brother (or my male relative, depending on context).

Why is na after ɗan uwa? Why not before, like English my brother?

In Hausa, possessive pronouns normally follow the noun, not precede it.

ɗan uwa = brother
na = my

Together:

ɗan uwa na = my brother

Compare:

gida = house/home → gida na = my house
mota = car → mota ta = my car (for some noun classes you use ta, but the idea is the same: the possessive comes after the noun).

You may also see a joined form in writing:

ɗan uwana (literally the same as ɗan uwa na, just written together)

Both ɗan uwa na and ɗan uwana are correct; learners will often meet the separate form first because it shows the pieces clearly.

In ɗan uwa na, is na the same na I know as “of / belonging to” in other contexts?

It’s related, but here it functions specifically as a possessive pronoun meaning “my”.

na can be:
- a possessive pronoun: ɗan uwa na = my brother
- a genitive linker: e.g. littafin Ali (Ali’s book), sometimes involving forms of na in other structures.

In this sentence, na is not “of” in a general sense; it directly encodes “my”. You can think of ɗan uwa na simply as a fixed pattern: [noun] + [possessive pronoun].

Why do we still need ya in saboda ya ji ciwo if we already said ɗan uwa na? Isn’t that redundant?

Hausa normally must have a subject pronoun in the verb phrase, even if the subject noun has already been mentioned.

So:

Main clause subject phrase: ɗan uwa na = my brother
Verb phrase: yana gida → the -na part of yana is the imperfective marker, the y- points back to he (3rd person singular).
In the reason clause: saboda ya ji ciwo, the subject must appear again as a pronoun:
- ya = he (3rd person singular, perfective subject)
- ji = feel
- ciwo = pain, illness

Literal structure: Today my brother he-is at-home because he-felt pain.

In English the second “he” would often be dropped, but in Hausa it cannot be: verbs require that subject pronoun.

What is the difference between ya and yana? Why is it yana gida but ya ji ciwo?

ya and yana are both 3rd person singular “he”, but they mark different aspects (types of verb forms):

ya = perfective (completed action)
- ya ji ciwo = he felt pain / he became sick
yana = imperfective / progressive (ongoing or current state)
- yana gida = he is (currently) at home

So your sentence uses:

yana gida to express the current situation: he is at home now
ya ji ciwo to explain the cause, seen as a completed event: he felt pain / he fell ill

In everyday translation, we usually render both with present:

He is at home today because he is sick. But grammatically, Hausa is distinguishing between current state (yana) and already-occurred event (ya).

Where is the word “is” in yana gida? I only see “he” (ya) and “home” (gida).

In Hausa, the idea of “is / am / are” in such sentences is not a separate word like English is; it’s built into the verb form.

yana can be broken down historically as:
- ya (he) + an aspect marker -na (imperfective/progressive)
Used with a place noun, yana functions like “he is (at) …”:

Examples:

yana gida = he is at home
yana makaranta = he is at school
yana kasuwa = he is at the market

So yana carries both “he” + “is (currently)”. There is no extra word for is.

Why is it yana gida and not yana a gida? Where is “at”?

In Hausa, with certain common location nouns (like gida “home”, makaranta “school”, kasuwa “market”), you can usually leave out the preposition a (“at, in”) after forms like yana.

So both are possible in general:

yana gida = he is at home
yana a gida = also understandable, but for many speakers yana gida is more natural and common.

For a learner, it’s safe to remember:

With simple, common places, [subject + yana + place noun] often already means “is at [place]” without a.

What is the exact meaning of ya ji ciwo? Is it “he felt pain” or “he is sick”?

Literally:

ya ji ciwo = he felt pain / he has felt pain

But idiomatically, in Hausa this is the normal way to say someone is / has become sick.

So:

ya ji ciwo ≈ he is sick / he got sick / he feels sick

Hausa often uses the perfective (here: ya ji) to talk about a current state that results from a completed event (“he has fallen ill, and is now sick”).

That’s why natural English for the whole sentence is:

Today my brother is at home because he is sick.

What does the combination ji ciwo mean? Can I use ji with other feelings?

Yes. The verb ji means to feel, to hear, or more broadly to experience (a sensation/emotion). Combined with ciwo (“pain / sickness”), it means to feel pain / be ill.

Common patterns:

ji ciwo = feel pain, be sick
ji daɗi = feel pleasure, be happy / pleased
ji tsoro = feel fear, be afraid
ji yunwa = feel hunger, be hungry
ji ƙishirwa = feel thirst, be thirsty

Structure: ji + [noun of sensation] → “feel / experience [that sensation].”

So ya ji ciwo fits into that pattern: he experienced pain / illness.

Can I say saboda yana jin ciwo instead of saboda ya ji ciwo? Is there a difference?

You can say saboda yana jin ciwo, and it is correct. The nuance is slightly different:

saboda ya ji ciwo
- Literally “because he felt pain”
- Perfective: emphasizes the onset or the fact that he got sick
- Common and very natural in causal explanations.
saboda yana jin ciwo
- Literally “because he is feeling pain”
- Imperfective: emphasizes the ongoing feeling right now
- Also natural, especially if you want to stress how he currently feels.

In everyday speech both can translate as:

because he is sick / because he feels sick

So your original sentence is natural; saboda yana jin ciwo is just a slightly more explicitly “ongoing” version.