A gida yau za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi.

Word-by-word:

• a – a preposition meaning at / in / on (here: at).
• gida – house, home.
• yau – today.
• za – future marker, like will / going to.
• mu – we (subject pronoun).
• dafa – to cook, boil.
• miya – soup, stew (usually a sauce eaten with a staple like tuwo).
• da – and / with.
• nama – meat.
• da – again and / with.
• kifi – fish.

So the structure is:

[Location] [Time] [Future marker + Subject] [Verb] [Object list]
→ A gida (at home) yau (today) za mu (we will) dafa (cook) miya da nama da kifi (soup and meat and fish / soup with meat and fish).

a is a very common preposition that can mean at, in, on, depending on context.

• a gida – at home / in the house.
• cikin gida – more explicitly inside the house.
• a gidanmu – at our house (gidanmu = our house).

So a gida is a simple, general way to say at home.
You use a before many place words:

• a kasuwa – at the market
• a makaranta – at school
• a ofis – at the office

Hausa word order is flexible for adverbs (time, place). Putting A gida yau at the start gives it emphasis:

• A gida yau za mu dafa miya…
  – At home today, we will cook soup… (emphasis on at home today).

You could also say:

• Yau za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi a gida.
  – Today we’ll cook soup… at home. (focus on today).

• Za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi a gida yau.
  – More neutral: We’ll cook soup… at home today.

All are grammatical; fronting A gida yau just highlights the setting.

za is a future tense/aspect marker. It must come before the subject pronoun (or is written together with it):

• za mu dafa – we will cook
• zan dafa – I will cook (from za + ni → zan)
• za ka dafa – you (m.sing.) will cook
• za su dafa – they will cook

In normal order, it’s always:

za + subject pronoun + verb
za mu dafa, za su zo, za ta sayi littafi, etc.

You don’t say mu za dafa in neutral speech; mu in that position would sound like a focused/emphatic mu: mu za mu dafa… = we (as opposed to others) will cook…

In careful / standard writing, it’s usually written as two words:

• za mu dafa
• za su tafi
• za ka zo

But in informal writing (texts, social media, song lyrics), people often write it together:

• zamu dafa
• zasu tafi
• zaka zo

Both represent the same pronunciation. For learning and formal purposes, keep it as za mu.

Yes, dafa is a transitive verb (it takes a direct object).

• dafa miya da nama da kifi
  – to cook soup and meat and fish / soup with meat and fish.

Here miya da nama da kifi is the direct object of dafa.
You can replace that phrase with other objects:

• dafa shinkafa – cook rice
• dafa wake – cook beans
• dafa abinci – cook food / a meal

It can be understood either way, depending on context:

• miya da nama da kifi
  
  1. A list: soup, meat, and fish (three separate things you’re cooking).
  2. A combination: soup with meat and fish in it.

In everyday speech, people often use da both to link separate dishes and to show ingredients inside one dish. Context (and culture: how people usually eat) tells you which is meant.

Yes, it’s the same da. It has two very common uses:

1. Coordinating conjunction (and):

   • miya da nama da kifi – soup and meat and fish
   • yara da manya – children and adults

2. Comitative / instrumental (with, using):

   • na zo da aboki na – I came with my friend
   • yanke burodi da wuƙa – cut bread with a knife

So in miya da nama da kifi, da is basically linking parts of the meal, and can also imply with (as ingredients).

Hausa doesn’t have a separate word for “the” like English. Nouns are usually bare:

• miya – soup / the soup (depending on context)
• nama – meat / the meat

To make something clearly definite / specific, Hausa uses other strategies, for example:

• miyar nan – this/that soup (here/there)
• miyar da muka dafa jiya – the soup that we cooked yesterday
• miyar gida – the home-made soup / the soup of the house

So in za mu dafa miya, whether you mean soup in general or the soup is inferred from the situation, not from a separate word like the.

Just change the subject pronoun after za:

• I will cook soup… at home today.
  → A gida yau zan dafa miya da nama da kifi.
  (za + ni = zan)

• They will cook soup… at home today.
  → A gida yau za su dafa miya da nama da kifi.

Other persons follow the same pattern:

• Za ka dafa… – you (m.sing.) will cook…
• Za ki dafa… – you (f.sing.) will cook…
• Za ku dafa… – you (pl.) will cook…

Future negative uses ba … ba around the za + subject + verb part.

Your sentence:

Ba za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi a gida yau ba.
= We will not cook soup with meat and fish at home today.

Pattern:

Ba + za + subject + verb (+ rest of sentence) + ba

Examples:

• Ba zan tafi ba. – I will not go.
• Ba za su ci abinci a nan ba. – They will not eat food here.

Use the completive (perfect) form of the verb instead of za + mu.

• A gida jiya mun dafa miya da nama da kifi.
  – At home yesterday we cooked soup with meat and fish.

Here:

• mun dafa – we cooked / we have cooked (completive of mu
  • dafa).

Compare:

• Za mu dafa… – we will cook…
• Mun dafa… – we cooked / we have cooked…

You can move them; Hausa allows flexible placement of time and place adverbs. All of these are grammatical:

1. A gida yau za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi.
2. Yau a gida za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi.
3. Yau za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi a gida.
4. Za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi a gida yau.

The basic clause za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi stays together; yau (today) and a gida (at home) can be placed before or after it for different emphasis / style.

In za mu dafa, mu is just the regular subject pronoun “we” attached to za for the future.

If you wanted to emphasize we (as opposed to someone else), you could say:

• Mu za mu dafa miya da nama da kifi.
  – We (rather than someone else) will cook…

So:

• za mu dafa… – neutral we will cook…
• mu za mu dafa… – focused / emphatic we are the ones who will cook…

Miya is usually more like a sauce or stew than a thin Western-style soup. It’s typically eaten with a solid staple such as tuwo (a thick swallow made from grains or yam).

Common types:

• miyar taushe – pumpkin/vegetable stew
• miyar kuka – baobab leaf soup
• miyar agushi – melon seed stew

So dafa miya da nama da kifi often suggests making a rich stew/sauce containing meat and fish, not just a light broth.