Learn Hardcore Hausa: Lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida, muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu. - When the electricity goes off at home, we use a lamp to continue studying.

Muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida.
We use a lamp to keep studying when the electricity goes off at home.

So lokacin da normally starts the clause that tells when something happens, and that clause can come before or after the main clause.

In wuta ta kashe, why is the pronoun ta used instead of ya? What gender is wuta?

In Hausa, nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), and the verb agrees with the subject using a subject pronoun.

wuta (fire, electricity, power, light) is grammatically feminine.
The 3rd-person feminine subject pronoun is ta.
The 3rd-person masculine subject pronoun is ya.

So you must say:

✅ wuta ta kashe – the electricity went off
❌ wuta ya kashe – ungrammatical

Unfortunately, gender usually has to be memorized with the noun. Some patterns exist, but wuta is simply one you learn as feminine: wuta – ta.

Does kashe here mean “to kill”? How can it also talk about electricity going off?

kashe is a very flexible verb in Hausa. Its core meanings include:

to kill
to put out / extinguish (a fire, light)
to turn off (a device, electricity)

So it can be used:

Ya kashe shi. – He killed him/it.
Ta kashe fitila. – She turned off the lamp.
An kashe wuta. – The power has been switched off.

In wuta ta kashe, the structure is a bit special:

wuta ta kashe
literally: the electricity has extinguished/turned off
natural meaning: “the electricity went off” / “the power went out”

Here kashe is used intransitively: the light/electricity itself “goes out,” without an explicit object. You can think of it as a shorter form of:

wuta ta kashe kanta – the electricity turned itself off (not usually said, but helpful conceptually).

So, same verb kashe, different but related senses: kill, extinguish, turn off.

What is the role of a in a gida, and how is it different from a cikin gida?

a is a basic preposition meaning roughly “in / at / on”, depending on context.

a gida = at home / in the house
a makaranta = at school
a kasuwa = at the market

a cikin gida is a bit more explicit:

ciki = inside
a cikin gida = inside the house (physically inside)

So:

Lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida...
= When the power goes off at home... (general location)

You could also say:

Lokacin da wuta ta kashe a cikin gida...
= When the power goes off inside the house... (slightly more concrete/physical sense)

Both are grammatically correct; a gida is just shorter and very common.

In muna amfani da fitila, what does muna express, and how is it different from other forms like muke or mun?

muna is the 1st person plural subject pronoun in the continuous / habitual aspect:

muna ≈ “we are (doing) / we usually (do)”

So:

muna amfani da fitila
≈ we use a lamp / we are using a lamp
(here it describes what we normally do in that situation)

Compare with:

mun – past/perfect: we have (done) / we did
- Mun yi karatu. – We studied / We have studied.
muke – same person and aspect as muna, but used in focus/relative constructions:
- Mu ne muke amfani da fitila. – We are the ones who use a lamp.
- Fitilar da muke amfani da ita... – The lamp that we use...

So in a simple statement like this sentence, muna is the normal, neutral form: we are (in the habit of) using.

Is muna amfani da missing something? I often see yin amfani da. Which is correct?

The more “textbook” form of “to use X” is:

yin amfani da X – to make use of X / to use X

Here:

yi = to do/make
yin = doing (verbal noun)
amfani = use, benefit, usefulness
da = with

So, very literally: “doing use with X” → “using X”.

In continuous aspect with “we”:

muna yin amfani da fitila – we use a lamp / we are using a lamp

In everyday speech and increasingly in writing, people often drop “yin” and just say:

muna amfani da fitila

This is widely understood and very common. So:

muna yin amfani da fitila – more complete/formal
muna amfani da fitila – very common, natural, slightly more informal

Both are acceptable in normal conversation.

What does amfani da mean exactly, and why is “use” expressed as a noun plus da?

amfani is a noun, not a verb. It means:

use, benefit, usefulness, advantage

To say “to use something”, Hausa idiomatically says “do use with (something)”:

yi amfani da X = to use X
(literally: do use with X)

So in the sentence:

muna (yin) amfani da fitila
≈ we (are) using a lamp

This pattern – verb “yi” + verbal noun + da + object – is very common:

yi magana da shi – to speak with him
yi shiri da shi – to make preparations with it
yi hulɗa da su – to have dealings with them

Here the structure is:

muna (we, continuous aspect)
(yin) amfani (doing use)
da fitila (with a lamp)

What exactly does fitila refer to? Is it a lamp, a flashlight, or a candle?

fitila is a general word for a small, portable light source. Depending on context, it can mean:

a lamp (oil lamp, kerosene lamp, rechargeable lamp)
a flashlight / torch
a lantern

For candles, Hausa often has more specific words like kandila or kyandir (borrowings), but in casual speech people may sometimes still refer to a candle as some kind of fitila if the main point is “a light source.”

In this sentence, fitila just means “a lamp / some kind of lamp or torch” – something you use when the electricity goes off. The exact type is understood from real-world context, not from the word alone.

Why do we see mu before ci gaba da karatu when we already have muna earlier? Aren’t they both “we”?

Yes, both refer to “we”, but they play different grammatical roles:

muna – “we” in continuous/habitual aspect
mu – “we” in the subjunctive/purpose form

In muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu:

muna amfani da fitila – we use a lamp (main, factual statement)
mu ci gaba da karatu – so that we may continue studying (purpose)

Here mu is not just repeating the subject; it marks a subjunctive / purpose clause: we do X so that we (can) do Y.

Very roughly:

muna ... mu ...
≈ we (fact) ... so that we (can/may) ...

You cannot simply drop mu:

❌ muna amfani da fitila ci gaba da karatu – wrong

Because ci gaba da karatu needs its own subject in this construction; mu provides that, and puts it into the “let us / that we may” type of meaning.

Could I add don or domin before mu ci gaba da karatu? When would I do that?

Yes, you can. don / domin mean “for / so that / in order to” and introduce a purpose clause.

So you can say:

... muna amfani da fitila don mu ci gaba da karatu.
... muna amfani da fitila domin mu ci gaba da karatu.

These both mean:

… we use a lamp so that we can continue studying.

Differences:

don – shorter, very common in speech and writing.
domin – slightly more formal or emphatic.

In many cases, Hausa can either:

use mu directly after the first verb (as in the sentence you have), or
insert don/domin to make the purpose more explicit.

All of these are acceptable:

muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu
muna amfani da fitila don mu ci gaba da karatu
muna amfani da fitila domin mu ci gaba da karatu

What does ci gaba da literally mean, and how is it used with other actions?

Literally:

ci – to eat; also extended to continue, go on in some expressions
gaba – front, forward/ahead

So ci gaba literally suggests “to eat forward / to move forward,” and idiomatically means:

to continue, to progress, to go on

In actual sentences it usually appears as:

ci gaba da + [verbal noun / activity]

Examples:

mu ci gaba da karatu – let us continue (with) study/reading
suka ci gaba da aiki – they continued working
za mu ci gaba da magana gobe – we will continue the discussion tomorrow

So in the sentence:

mu ci gaba da karatu
≈ so that we can continue studying

Why is it ci gaba da karatu and not something like ci gaba da karanta?

After ci gaba da, Hausa expects a verbal noun (or noun phrase), not the bare verb form.

karanta = to read / to study (verb)
karatu = reading, study, studies (verbal noun / noun)

So:

✅ ci gaba da karatu – continue (with) reading/studying
❌ ci gaba da karanta – ungrammatical

Other examples with verbal nouns:

ci gaba da aiki – continue working (aiki = work)
ci gaba da magana – continue talking (magana = speech/talk)
ci gaba da tafiya – continue walking/travelling (tafiya = journey/walk)

Think of ci gaba da X as “continue with X,” where X is a noun-like activity word (a verbal noun), not the plain verb.

Can I change the word order and say Muna amfani da fitila lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the order, and the meaning does not change, only the emphasis:

Lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida, muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu.
– Starts with when the power goes off at home, then tells what we do.
Muna amfani da fitila mu ci gaba da karatu lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida.
– Starts with we use a lamp to continue studying, then adds when the power goes off at home.

Both are natural. Hausa freely allows the “when”-clause (lokacin da...) to come:

at the beginning of the sentence, or
after the main clause.

It’s similar to English:
“When the power goes off, we use a lamp” vs. “We use a lamp when the power goes off.”

What is the difference between wuta ta kashe and wutar ta kashe in this kind of sentence?

Both are possible, but there is a small nuance.

wuta – fire/electricity/power (bare noun)
wutar – the fire/electricity/power (with definite/genitive suffix -r)

So:

Lokacin da wuta ta kashe a gida...
– When (the) electricity goes off at home...
Here wuta is understood as the electricity from context; Hausa often uses a bare noun this way.
Lokacin da wutar ta kashe a gida...
– also When the electricity goes off at home...
wutar is a bit more explicitly definite, like stressing “that electricity / the house’s electricity.”

In many everyday contexts, especially with very familiar things like wuta (electricity, fire), Hausa speakers often use the bare noun without losing clarity. So your original wuta ta kashe is completely natural.