Musa ya ce wa likita, "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?"

Musa said to the doctor, "Why do I feel ill every day?"

Breakdown of Musa ya ce wa likita, "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?"

• ne: to be
• Musa: Musa
• ji: to feel
• wa: to
• ce: to say
• ciwo: ill
• likita: the doctor
• me yasa: why
• kullum: every day

Questions & Answers about Musa ya ce wa likita, "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?"

What does ya mean in Musa ya ce wa likita and why do we need it?

Ya is the 3rd person singular masculine subject marker, roughly “he”.

• Musa ya ce… literally: Musa, he said…
  Hausa usually repeats the subject with this little marker after a full noun subject.
• You normally can’t just say Musa ce wa likita; that would be wrong. You need ya to show tense/aspect and agreement.

So Musa ya ce… is the normal way to say “Musa said…” in Hausa.

What is the function of wa in ya ce wa likita? Is it like the English “to”?

Yes. Wa marks an indirect object, often translating as “to” or “for”.

• ya ce wa likita = “he said to the doctor”
• Pattern: verb + wa + person
  
  • na ba wa Musa kuɗi = I gave Musa money
  • ta nuna wa yara = she showed the children

You generally need wa in this structure; Musa ya ce likita (without wa) is not correct for “Musa said to the doctor”.

What is the difference between ce wa and gaya wa? Could we say Musa ya gaya wa likita… instead?

Both ce wa and gaya wa can mean “to say (to someone)”, but there are nuances:

• ce (wa) = “to say (to someone)”

  • Common with direct quotes.
  • Musa ya ce wa likita, “…”.

• gaya (wa) = “to tell (someone)” (often with reported speech)

  • Common with “that…” clauses.
  • Musa ya gaya wa likita cewa yana jin ciwo kullum.
    = Musa told the doctor that he feels pain every day.

You could say Musa ya gaya wa likita, "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?", but ce wa feels more natural for introducing a direct, word‑for‑word quote.

What does Me yasa literally mean, and is it always used for “why”?

Me yasa is the most common way to say “why?” in Hausa.

Literally it can be analyzed as something like:

• me = “what”
• yasa = “caused / made (it happen)”

So the idea is “what caused (it)?” → “why?”.

Other variants you might see or hear:

• Me ya sa…? (spelled separately)
• Me ya sa kake…? = Why are you…?

But in everyday writing you’ll very often see Me yasa…? as a fixed phrase for “why?”.

How does ina jin ciwo work? Why use ina jin instead of something like “I am pain”?

Ina jin ciwo literally is:

• ina = “I am (in the process of) …‑ing” (1st person continuous form)
• jin = “feeling / experiencing” (from the verb ji, “to feel, hear, sense”)
• ciwo = “pain / sickness”

So ina jin ciwo = “I am feeling pain” or “I feel pain / I’m in pain.”

Compare:

• Ina jin ciwo = I feel pain / I’m hurting.
• Ina da ciwo = I have a sickness / I’m ill. (more about “having an illness”)

Both can mean someone isn’t well, but ina jin ciwo focuses more on the sensation of pain.

What exactly does kullum mean in this sentence? Is it “always” or “every day”?

Kullum can mean “always” or “every day”, depending on context.

In Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum? it can be understood as:

• “Why am I in pain every day?”
• or “Why do I always feel pain?”

Both are natural translations. The core idea is that the pain is constant / habitual.

Is the word order in Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum? special because it’s a question?

The main point is that Hausa usually puts question words like Me yasa at the beginning of the sentence.

• Statement (roughly): Ina jin ciwo kullum. = I feel pain every day.
• Question: Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum? = Why do I feel pain every day?

Inside the rest of the sentence, the order stays normal:
[ina] [jin] [ciwo] [kullum] → subject‑marker + verb + object + time word.

So the question formation here mainly consists of adding Me yasa at the front and using question intonation/punctuation.

Why is there no word for “am” in Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum? like in English “Why am I…”?

In Hausa, the “am/are/is” idea is built into the verb form or pronoun; you don’t add a separate “am”.

• ina already carries:
  • I
    • am
      • “(in the process of)”
• So ina jin ciwo = “I am feeling pain.”

There is no separate verb like English “am” in this structure; tense and subject are encoded in ina.

Could you say Me yasa nake jin ciwo kullum? instead of Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum? and is there a difference?

Yes, Me yasa nake jin ciwo kullum? is also correct.

• ina jin and nake jin both express present / ongoing or habitual action.
• In many dialects, ina jin is very common in speech.
• nake jin can sound a bit more explicit or careful about marking the present continuous.

In everyday conversation, most speakers would not feel a big difference in meaning here; both can translate as “Why do I always feel pain?”

Why is likita used without a word for “the”? Shouldn’t it be “the doctor”?

Hausa normally doesn’t use articles like “a / the” as separate words the way English does.

• likita can mean “a doctor” or “the doctor” depending on context.
• Here, from context we understand it as “the doctor” (the doctor Musa is speaking to).

So Musa ya ce wa likita… is naturally translated as “Musa said to the doctor…” in English.

Is the comma and quotation mark usage around "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?" similar to English?

Yes, it follows an English‑like convention:

• Musa ya ce wa likita, "Me yasa ina jin ciwo kullum?"
  
  • Comma before the direct quote.
  • The quoted sentence starts with a capital and ends with a question mark inside the quotes.

In Hausa writing you may also see a colon instead of a comma before direct speech, but the pattern here is one very common and acceptable way to punctuate direct quotes.