Breakdown of Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
Questions & Answers about Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
Gobe da yamma literally breaks down as:
- gobe = tomorrow
- da = with / and / at (a very flexible linker word)
- yamma = evening / late afternoon
As a fixed time expression, gobe da yamma means “tomorrow evening / tomorrow in the evening”.
Here da is acting more like a linker meaning “in/at the time of” rather than a simple “and”. You’ll see the same pattern in:
- da safe – in the morning
- da rana – in the afternoon / daytime
- da dare – at night
Yes. Hausa is quite flexible with time expressions. All of these are natural:
- Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
- Za mu yi taro gobe da yamma a makaranta mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
- Za mu yi taro a makaranta gobe da yamma mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
Putting gobe da yamma at the beginning is very common and emphasizes when it will happen, but the meaning is the same in all versions.
Za is the future marker.
- mu = we
- za mu = we will / we are going to
So:
- muna yin taro = we are holding a meeting (now / around now)
- za mu yi taro = we will hold a meeting (in the future)
Za always comes before the subject pronoun:
- za ni je – I will go
- za ka zo – you (m.sg.) will come
- za su tafi – they will leave
In careful, standard writing, za mu is written as two words:
- za mu yi taro – we will hold a meeting
In informal writing (texts, social media, songs), people often write zamu, zaka, zasu, etc. But for learning and for exams, you should prefer the separated forms:
- za ni, za ka, za ki, za mu, za ku, za su
Hausa often uses yi (to do/make) + a verbal noun to express an action.
- yi taro = have a meeting / hold a meeting
- yi = do
- taro = meeting / gathering
There are also full verbs related to meetings:
- taru = to gather / to meet (come together)
So you can say:
- za mu yi taro – we will hold a meeting
- za mu taru – we will gather / meet up
Yi taro emphasises the event (a “meeting” as an organized thing), while taru emphasises people coming together. Both are common and often interchangeable in everyday speech.
a is a preposition that usually means in / at / on depending on context.
- makaranta = school
- a makaranta = at school / in school
Other examples:
- a gida – at home
- a kasuwa – in the market
- a ofis – at the office
If you want to say at the school (a particular one that we both know), you might see:
- a makarantar nan – at this school
- a makarantar mu – at our school
But in many contexts, plain a makaranta is understood as “at school” in general, or the relevant school is clear from context.
Good observation. The structure here is:
- za mu yi taro a makaranta – we will hold a meeting at school
- mu tattauna darasi na gaba – (so that) we discuss the next lesson
That second mu marks a new verb phrase / clause that shares the same subject (we), but is a kind of purpose or result of the meeting:
- … za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
→ “… we will hold a meeting at school so that we can discuss the next lesson.”
You could make the purpose even more explicit:
- … za mu yi taro a makaranta don mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
But it’s very natural in Hausa to just put mu + verb after the first clause, without an explicit “so that” word.
No, that would sound wrong or at least very odd. You need something to show who is doing tattauna (“discuss”), and in this kind of structure Hausa normally repeats the subject pronoun:
- za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna… – we will hold a meeting at school (and) we discuss…
- za su zo nan su ga malami – they will come here (and) they see the teacher
So keep the second mu; think of it as starting a new short clause with the same subject.
Tattauna is a verb meaning to discuss / to talk over / to deliberate about something.
- za mu tattauna batun nan – we will discuss this matter
- sun tattauna da juna – they discussed with each other
In the sentence:
- mu tattauna darasi na gaba
→ “(so that) we discuss the next lesson”
Grammatically it’s the subjunctive form after mu (subjunctive “we”), but it looks the same as the basic verb form, so you just learn it as tattauna = to discuss.
Breakdown:
- darasi = lesson
- gaba = front, ahead, what is in front / coming next
- na = “of” (genitive linker)
So darasi na gaba literally is “lesson of the front / lesson of ahead”, i.e. the upcoming / next lesson.
This X na gaba pattern is very common:
- shekara ta gaba – next year
- makon da ya gaba – the coming week / next week
- gidan da ke gaba – the house in front
Yes, and it’s natural.
- darasi na gaba – the next lesson (in general, or understood from context)
- darasinmu na gaba – our next lesson
Breakdown:
- darasi
- -n = darasin (genitive form)
- mu = we / our
- darasinmu = our lesson
- darasinmu na gaba = our next lesson
So you could say:
- … mu tattauna darasinmu na gaba. – … so that we discuss our next lesson.
Yes, the basic order is Subject – Verb – Object – (modifier):
- mu – we (subject)
- tattauna – discuss (verb)
- darasi – lesson (object)
- na gaba – of next / next (modifier of darasi)
So it’s structurally similar to English “we discuss the next lesson”, just with the “of next” structure instead of a single adjective “next”.
You could rephrase in several natural ways without changing the basic meaning:
Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta don mu tattauna darasi na gaba.
- adds don = so that / in order to
Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta domin tattauna darasi na gaba.
- domin tattauna = for discussing
Gobe da yamma za mu yi taro a makaranta mu tattauna game da darasi na gaba.
- game da = about / regarding
All of them mean essentially: “Tomorrow evening we will have a meeting at school to discuss the next lesson.” The original version without don/domin is very natural in speech and informal writing.