’Yar uwata ba ta son ta farka da wuri a Lahadi.

My sister doesn’t like to wake up early on Sunday.

Breakdown of ’Yar uwata ba ta son ta farka da wuri a Lahadi.

• ba … ba: not
• so: to like
• da wuri: early
• ’yar uwa: the sister

Questions & Answers about ’Yar uwata ba ta son ta farka da wuri a Lahadi.

What does ’yar uwata literally mean, and why is the possessive on uwa and not on ’yar?

’Yar uwata literally means “the daughter of my mother”, which is how Hausa says “my sister.”

• ’yar = daughter / girl (female child)
• uwa = mother
• uwata = my mother (uwa + the 1st person singular possessive ending -ta for feminine nouns)

So ’yar uwata is “daughter of my mother,” i.e. my sister.
The possessive attaches to uwa because, conceptually, she is “a daughter of my mother,” not “my daughter.” Putting the possessive on ’yar (e.g. ’yata) would mean “my daughter,” not “my sister.”

Why is the sentence not just Uwata ba ta son ta farka da wuri a Lahadi if uwata means “my mother”? How do we know it’s “my sister”?

On its own, uwata normally means “my mother.”
But ’yar uwa is a fixed expression meaning “sister” (literally, “daughter of [my] mother”). When you add a possessive to uwa inside that expression, you get:

• ’yar uwa = a sister (lit. daughter of a mother)
• ’yar uwata = my sister (lit. daughter of my mother)

If someone said Uwata ba ta son ta farka…, that would be understood as “My mother doesn’t like to wake up…”
Because the sentence starts with ’Yar uwata, it clearly refers to “my sister,” not “my mother.” Context and this standard expression remove the ambiguity.