Breakdown of Lokacin da nake yin siyayya, ina tambayar farashi kafin in saya abu.
Questions & Answers about Lokacin da nake yin siyayya, ina tambayar farashi kafin in saya abu.
Lokacin da literally means “the time that/when …”.
- lokaci = time
- lokacin = the time (definite form, with -n)
- da here works like a relative marker: “that/when”
So Lokacin da nake yin siyayya is literally “the time when I am shopping”, understood as “when I am shopping / whenever I shop”.
Compared with idan:
- idan = “if/when” (often conditional)
- Idan na je kasuwa, ina siyayya. = When/If I go to the market, I shop.
- Lokacin da = more clearly “(at the) time when”
- Sounds a bit more like setting a time frame, not a condition.
In many everyday contexts, Lokacin da … and Idan … can both translate as “when …”, but idan leans more conditional, while lokacin da is more straightforwardly temporal (“the time when…”).
nake is really two elements spoken together:
- na = the 1st person singular subject pronoun (“I”) in this slot
- ke = a marker used in relative clauses to show continuous / ongoing aspect
In Lokacin da nake yin siyayya:
- na + ke = nake → “I am (doing)” / “I (usually) do” in a relative clause
- It has a present continuous / habitual sense because of the structure with ke and a verbal noun (yin).
Outside relative clauses you usually see:
- Ina yin siyayya. = I am shopping / I shop.
But inside a da-clause (a relative/“when” clause), Hausa typically switches to the … ke … pattern:
- Lokacin da nake yin siyayya … = When I am shopping …
So nake is “I + continuous-aspect marker” in that subordinate clause.
A few points:
Spacing / form:
- You’ll normally write na ke, but in practice it’s often written and pronounced as nake.
- naken (with an extra -n) doesn’t belong here; that -n is a different ending (genitive/definite), not part of the aspect marker.
Aspect choice:
- nayi siyayya uses na yi in the perfect:
- Na yi siyayya. = I did some shopping (I have shopped).
- In our sentence we want “when I am shopping / when I shop (habitually)”, not “when I did shopping (once)”, so the continuous/habitual structure nake yin siyayya is more natural.
- nayi siyayya uses na yi in the perfect:
So:
- Lokacin da nake yin siyayya = When I am (in the process of) shopping / whenever I shop
- Lokacin da na yi siyayya would mean something like When I had shopped / when I did the shopping (on that occasion), which is a different nuance.
yin is the verbal noun form of yi (“to do, to make”).
- yi (verb) → yin (doing, the act of doing)
Hausa often expresses activities as:
- yi + [activity noun]
- yin aiki = doing work
- yin barci = sleeping (literally “doing sleep”)
- yin wasa = playing
- yin siyayya = doing shopping → shopping
So:
- nake yin siyayya literally = I am doing shopping
- In natural English: I am shopping / I shop.
You can see siyayya alone in some contexts:
- Ina siyayya. = I am shopping.
But with the relative, continuous structure (n- ke + verbal noun), Hausa commonly uses yin + the activity noun:
- Lokacin da nake yin siyayya … sounds very natural.
- Lokacin da nake siyayya … is understandable, but yin siyayya is the standard, smooth pattern here.
Both nake and ina do express a kind of present / ongoing / habitual meaning, but they appear in different clause types:
nake → used inside a da-clause / relative clause:
- Lokacin da nake yin siyayya … = When I am shopping …
- The da triggers this … ke … structure.
ina → used in a main clause for present continuous/habitual:
- ina tambayar farashi … = I (usually) ask the price / I am asking the price …
So the pattern is:
- Subordinate “when” clause: Lokacin da nake …
- Main clause: ina …
You don’t repeat nake in the second clause because that second clause is not a da-relative; it’s just an ordinary main statement.
Structure:
- ina = I am / I (habitually) do
- tambayar = verbal noun/genitive form from tambaya (“question, asking”)
- farashi = price
So ina tambayar farashi literally means “I am (in) the asking of price”, understood as “I ask the price / I am asking the price.”
About tambayar:
- tambaya = question, asking (noun)
- tambayar farashi = “the asking of price” / “price question”
You can also meet:
- Ina tambayi farashi.
Here tambayi functions more as a finite verb “to ask (someone/something)”. Both patterns are possible:
- ina tambayar farashi (with a verbal noun)
- ina tambayi farashi (with the verb)
Using the verbal noun (tambayar farashi) is very common and sounds natural, especially in descriptive sentences like this.
kafin means “before (doing something)”.
- It comes from kafin / kafin lokaci (“before the time”), but in practice you just use kafin
- clause.
Pattern:
- kafin + [subject marker + verb] + (object)
In our sentence:
- kafin in saya abu = “before I buy something.”
So the whole structure is:
- Lokacin da nake yin siyayya, ina tambayar farashi kafin in saya abu.
→ When I am shopping, I ask the price before I buy something.
You could also sometimes hear:
- kafin na saya abu
Here na is another way to mark “I” before the verb. Both kafin in saya and kafin na saya can occur, but kafin in saya with in is very idiomatic in many dialects.
Hausa in is a bit tricky because it appears in two related roles:
As a conjunction meaning “if / when”:
- In ka zo, zan tafi. = If/When you come, I will go.
As a reduced form of “in na”, functioning like “that I (should) … / for me to …” in certain subordinate contexts.
In kafin in saya abu:
- kafin = before
- in saya = “(that) I buy / for me to buy”
- So together: “before I buy something.”
You can think of in + verb here as a subjunctive-like form:
- It doesn’t describe something happening right now, but a potential / intended action after that point in time.
So:
- In can be “if/when” in one structure, but in kafin in saya it’s acting as a first-person subject marker in a subordinate “before …” clause. Context and word order tell you which is which.
Hausa has two related verbs that both often translate as “to buy”:
- saya – buy, purchase (fairly general)
- sayo – buy, usually with a nuance of “buy and bring (back)” or with more focus on the acquisition aspect (usage can vary by dialect)
In this neutral, general sentence about the shopping process, saya is the natural choice:
- in saya abu = that I buy something
If the sentence were specifically about buying and bringing something (home), sayo might appear in some dialects:
- in sayo abu – to buy (and bring) something
But for a general statement like “I ask the price before I buy something”, saya fits perfectly.
abu basically means “thing”.
In this sentence:
- in saya abu = “(that) I buy a thing” → that I buy something.
You’ll often see:
- abu = thing / something (neutral)
- wani abu = some thing, a certain thing, something (unspecified)
Nuance:
- abu alone already covers “something” in many contexts.
- wani abu adds a slight sense of “some particular thing” or makes the indefiniteness clearer/emphatic.
So:
- kafin in saya abu = before I buy something (plain, generic)
- kafin in saya wani abu = before I buy some (specific/particular) thing, or said with a bit more emphasis on “some thing or other”.
In everyday speech, abu on its own is perfectly fine for “something” here.
Yes, it’s normal and necessary in Hausa, because each clause needs its own subject marking, and Hausa marks subjects on the verb/aspect element, not just once at the start.
In your sentence you actually have three separate clauses:
Lokacin da nake yin siyayya
- Clause inside da: n-ake = “I (am)” in a relative clause
ina tambayar farashi
- Main clause: ina = “I (am)” in present/habitual
kafin in saya abu
- Subordinate clause after kafin: in = “I (should)” / “I (am going to)”
Hausa doesn’t let one subject pronoun cover multiple clauses the way English sometimes can. So:
- Every finite verb or verbal nucleus in its own clause will usually carry its own subject marker (like na, ka, ya, ina, kake, in, etc.).
That’s why you see nake, ina, and in all referring to “I” in one sentence; each belongs to its own clause.