Kafin mu tafi kasuwa, za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya.

Before we go to the market, we will take a bath and change clothes.

Breakdown of Kafin mu tafi kasuwa, za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya.

• kasuwa: the market
• tafi: to go
• yi: to do
• mu: we
• wanka: the bath
• kafin: before
• canza: to change
• kaya: the clothes

Questions & Answers about Kafin mu tafi kasuwa, za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya.

What exactly does kafin mean here, and what kind of word is it?

Kafin means “before” in the temporal sense (before something happens).

In this sentence, kafin is a subordinating conjunction / preposition-like word that introduces a time clause:

• Kafin mu tafi kasuwa – Before we go to the market

It links this subordinate clause to the main clause:

• za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya – we will bathe and change clothes

So the structure is:

• Kafin
  • clause → Before
    • clause

Why is it mu tafi after kafin, and not za mu tafi?

After words like kafin (before), Hausa normally uses the subjunctive (or “bare”/irrealis) verb form, not the future marker za.

• mu tafi = subjunctive: that we go / (we) go
• za mu tafi = future: we will go

After kafin, you say:

• Kafin mu tafi kasuwa…
  Before we go to the market…

NOT:

• ✗ Kafin za mu tafi kasuwa…

So the rule to remember:

• kafin + subjunctive (no za)

Can I also say the sentence with the clauses in the opposite order?

Yes. You can move the kafin-clause to the end:

• Za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya kafin mu tafi kasuwa.
  We will bathe and change clothes before we go to the market.

This is equivalent in meaning to:

• Kafin mu tafi kasuwa, za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya.

The comma in writing just marks that the “before we go to the market” part comes first; the spoken sentence is natural both ways.

What does za mu mean, and how does it work with the verb?

Za is a future marker, and mu is the 1st person plural subject pronoun (we). Together:

• za mu ≈ “we will / we are going to”

Then you add a verb in its base form:

• za mu yi – we will do
• za mu je – we will go
• za mu yi wanka – we will bathe
• za mu canza kaya – we will change clothes

In the sentence:

• za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya
  → za mu (yi) … (mu) canza …
  Both actions are in the future, under that same za mu.

What does yi wanka literally mean? Why not just a single verb for “to bathe”?

Yi wanka is a common light-verb construction:

• yi = to do / to make
• wanka = bathing, bath (a noun)

So yi wanka literally means “do bath / do bathing”, but functionally it is just “to bathe / to take a bath / to shower.”

Some points:

• You very often see yi
  • noun in Hausa:
    • yi magana – to speak (do speech)
    • yi aiki – to work (do work)
• You can say mu wanka in some contexts, but yi wanka is the most natural and standard expression for “have a wash / bathe.”

Where is the word “and” between “bathe” and “change clothes”? Why is there no da?

Hausa often links actions by just putting the verb phrases one after the other, without an explicit “and” (da) when the subject is the same:

• za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya
  = we will bathe (and) change clothes

This is a very common pattern:

• za su je su sayi nama – they will go (and) buy meat
• na tashi na yi wanka – I got up (and) bathed

You can sometimes add da to link nouns or some clauses, but for a simple sequence of actions with the same subject, just chaining the verbs like this is normal and natural.

Why is mu repeated before canza? Could I leave it out?

In za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya you see mu twice:

• za mu yi wanka – we will bathe
• mu canza kaya – we (will) change clothes

Reasons:

1. In Hausa, each finite verb usually has its own subject pronoun.
2. When you chain verbs, you often repeat the subject pronoun with each verb.

So za mu yi wanka mu canza kaya is perfectly normal.

In casual speech, people might sometimes drop the second subject (e.g. za mu yi wanka canza kaya), but:

• Repeating mu is clearer and more standard.
• For a learner, it is better to keep the second mu.

What does kasuwa mean exactly, and is it “the market” or “a market”?

Kasuwa means “market”. Hausa does not have articles like English “a” or “the”, so kasuwa on its own can be translated as either “the market” or “a market”, depending on context.

In ordinary conversation, mu tafi kasuwa is usually understood as:

• “we go to the market” (the usual/local market), not some random market.

So:

• Kafin mu tafi kasuwa…
  ≈ Before we go to the (our usual) market…

What does kaya mean, and why is there no separate plural marker for “clothes”?

Kaya here means “clothes”. A few points:

• kaya is grammatically plural in this sense (no extra plural ending is needed).
• It can also mean loads, goods, belongings, luggage depending on context.
• For clothes specifically, kaya and tufafi are both common words meaning “clothes.”

So:

• canza kaya = to change clothes
  (literally, change clothes / belongings – but in this context, clearly clothes)

What does canza mean here? Do I need a reflexive pronoun like “ourselves”?

Canza is a verb meaning “to change / to exchange / to replace.”

In mu canza kaya:

• mu = we
• canza = change
• kaya = clothes

So the direct object is kaya (clothes):
“we change clothes” → we change our clothes / we change (into) other clothes.

Hausa does not use a reflexive pronoun here:

• You do not say “change ourselves our clothes.”
• mu canza kaya already covers the idea of we change our clothes (we put on different clothes).

Why is the verb after kafin in this “mu tafi” form? Is that a special mood?

Yes. The mu tafi after kafin is the subjunctive / irrealis mood:

• mu tafi – (that) we go / we (should) go
• not muna tafiya (we are going)
• not za mu tafi (we will go)

Hausa tends to use this subjunctive form after certain conjunctions, especially those that refer to time or condition:

• kafin mu tafi – before we go
• bayan mu tafi – after we go
• idan mu tafi / in mun tafi – if/when we go

So the pattern here is:

• kafin + (subjunctive subject + base verb)
  → kafin mu tafi

Could I say Kafin mu je kasuwa instead of Kafin mu tafi kasuwa?

Yes, you can say:

• Kafin mu je kasuwa…
  or
• Kafin mu tafi kasuwa…

Both are grammatical and both can be translated as “before we go to the market…”

Nuance:

• je = “go (to a place)”
• tafi = “go, leave, depart”

In many everyday contexts they overlap a lot, and your sentence would sound natural with either je or tafi here.

Does wanka mean specifically “bath” (in a tub) or also “shower / wash”?

Wanka covers several related ideas:

• to bathe (wash the whole body)
• to take a shower
• to wash oneself generally

So yi wanka in this sentence can be understood broadly as:

• “have a wash / bathe / shower”

It does not force the image of a bathtub; it is just “properly wash your body” before going out.