Learn Hardcore Hausa: Kifi wanda uwa ta dafa yana daɗi sosai. - The fish that mother cooked is very tasty.

Relative clause: wanda uwa ta dafa
- uwa = mother → subject
- ta = she (3rd person feminine singular subject pronoun, perfective)
- dafa = cooked
  Together: uwa ta dafa = mother cooked (it)
Main clause: kifi … yana daɗi sosai
- The subject is still kifi (fish).
- y- in yana is the pronoun ya = he/it (masc.)
- -na marks progressive/continuous aspect, so yana ≈ it is (currently)
- daɗi = pleasantness, tastiness
- sosai = very / very much

So structurally:

[Kifi [wanda uwa ta dafa]] [yana daɗi sosai].
[Fish [that mother cooked]] [is very tasty].

Why is it ta dafa with uwa, but yana with kifi? What’s going on with gender?

Hausa verbs agree with the gender of the subject.

uwa ta dafa
- uwa (mother) is feminine.
- Feminine 3rd person singular subject (perfective) is ta.
- So ta dafa = she cooked → matches uwa.
kifi … yana daɗi
- kifi (fish) is masculine.
- Masculine 3rd person singular subject (imperfective/progressive) is ya, which combines with -na to give yana.
- So yana daɗi = it (he) is tasty → matches kifi.

So:

Feminine subject (uwa) → ta dafa (she cooked).
Masculine subject (kifi) → yana daɗi (it is tasty).

Why don’t we say ta dafa shi (“she cooked it”)? Where did the “it” go?

In Hausa, when the object is already clear from context, speakers often omit the object pronoun.

Here, kifi is the thing being cooked. Once it’s mentioned:

uwa ta dafa (kifi) → mother cooked (the fish)

The shi (it/him, masc. sg. object pronoun) is not strictly necessary:

uwa ta dafa shi = she cooked it (him) – grammatically correct, but not required.
In a relative clause like wanda uwa ta dafa, it’s very natural not to repeat shi.

So ta dafa alone is fine because it’s understood that she cooked the kifi being talked about.

What does yana daɗi sosai literally mean? Why not just daɗi sosai?

Literally, yana daɗi sosai is something like:

ya-na daɗi sosai
- ya- = he/it (masc. sg.)
- -na = progressive/continuous marker
- daɗi = pleasantness, tastiness
- sosai = very / very much

So it’s like saying: “it is (in a state of) pleasantness very much” → naturally translated as “it is very tasty / it tastes very good.”

You normally need a verb in Hausa here:

✅ yana daɗi sosai – correct, natural
❌ daɗi sosai (by itself) – sounds incomplete as a full sentence

Just saying daɗi sosai would feel more like a fragment: “very deliciousness” without “is.”

Is daɗi an adjective like “delicious,” or something else?

daɗi is actually a noun in Hausa. It means:

daɗi = pleasure, pleasantness, tastiness, delight

But Hausa often uses nouns like this with a verb like yana to express what in English would be an adjective:

yana daɗi = it is delicious / it is pleasant
abinci yana daɗi = the food is tasty

So syntactically:

Hausa: [it] is [pleasantness]
English: [it] is [pleasant] / [delicious]

Even though daɗi is a noun, you can think of yana daɗi as equivalent to an adjective phrase in English (is tasty).

What is the role of sosai, and why is it placed after daɗi?

sosai means “very, very much, really”. It’s an intensifier.

yana daɗi = it is tasty / pleasant
yana daɗi sosai = it is very tasty / really delicious

Placement:
sosai typically comes after the quality it intensifies:

daɗi sosai – very tasty
gajiya sosai – very tired
sauri sosai – very fast

So sosai follows daɗi because it’s modifying that quality, not the verb y-ana.

Could you break down the whole sentence word by word?

Yes. Here’s a simple breakdown:

kifi – fish (masculine singular noun)
wanda – who/that/which (relative pronoun, masc. singular, agrees with kifi)
uwa – mother (feminine noun)
ta – she (3rd person feminine singular subject pronoun, perfective)
dafa – cooked
yana – he/it is (3rd person masc. singular in progressive/imperfective: ya
- -na)
daɗi – pleasantness, tastiness, delight
sosai – very, very much, really

So structurally:

kifi – subject, head noun
wanda uwa ta dafa – relative clause describing kifi
yana daɗi sosai – main predicate (is very tasty)

Can I replace wanda with da and say Kifi da uwa ta dafa…?

In many colloquial contexts, you will hear da used to introduce relative clauses:

Kifi da uwa ta dafa yana daɗi sosai.

This can be understood and is used in speech. However:

wanda / wadda / wadanda are the specific relative pronouns that agree in gender/number.
da is more general: it can mean and, with, that and can also introduce relative-like clauses, but it’s less specific and can be more colloquial or dialect-dependent.

For clear, textbook-standard Hausa, especially when learning:

Prefer wanda with a masculine singular noun like kifi:
- Kifi wanda uwa ta dafa yana daɗi sosai.

Later, when you’re comfortable, you can notice and start using the da pattern as you hear it in real speech.

How would I say more explicitly “The fish that my mother cooked is very tasty”?

You can make “the” and “my mother” clearer in Hausa:

Mark definiteness on “fish”:
- kifi → kifin = the fish
Add my to “mother”:
- uwa = mother
- uwata = my mother

A natural sentence:

Kifin da uwata ta dafa yana daɗi sosai.
- The fish that my mother cooked is very tasty.

You could also say:

Kifin da uwata ta dafa ya yi daɗi sosai.
- Literally: The fish that my mother cooked did deliciousness very much
- Meaning: The fish my mother cooked tasted very good (on that occasion).
yana daɗi sosai → more like a general/state (“is tasty”).
ya yi daɗi sosai → more like a completed event (“turned out / tasted very good”).