Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yara suka yi murmushi lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci. - The children smiled when mother told them a story before sleep.

Sun yi murmushi = they smiled (neutral past).
Yara suka yi murmushi = the children smiled with a slight sense of:
- it was the children (not someone else), or
- this is the next key event in the story.

In narratives, Hausa very often uses this suka‑form to move the story along, even when English just uses a plain past tense without any special emphasis. So here Yara suka yi murmushi is very natural storytelling style.

Grammatically, suka is the 3rd person plural subject + perfective form used in focused or narrative clauses, while sun is the more neutral perfective form.

Does yara mean children or the children? Why isn’t it yaran?

In Hausa, bare nouns often cover both “children” and “the children”, depending on context. So:

yara = children / the children (context decides)
yaran usually means “the children of …” or a more specifically identified group, e.g.:
- yaranmu – our children
- yaran makwabcinmu – the neighbour’s children

In your sentence, the context (a specific bedtime scene) makes it clear we mean “the children”, so yara is completely natural. Hausa does not need an article like “the” the way English does.

Why do we say yi murmushi instead of just one verb for “smile”? What does yi add?

Hausa often uses the general verb yi (to do/make) together with a verbal noun to express what in English is a single verb:

yi murmushi – do a smile → smile
yi magana – do speech → speak, talk
yi wasa – do play → play, joke

Here:

yi = do
murmushi = a smile, smiling

So suka yi murmushi literally is “they did a smile”, but idiomatically it just means “they smiled”. This structure is extremely common and very natural in Hausa.

What does lokacin da mean exactly? Is da necessary after lokacin?

Lokacin da is a very common way to say “when” (as a conjunction introducing a clause):

lokaci = time
lokacin = the time / at the time of
da here acts like a relative word, roughly “that/when”

So lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari ≈ the time when the mother told them a story → when the mother told them a story.

You normally need the da here. Without da, lokacin would just mean “the time (of)” and the sentence would feel incomplete:

✔ lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari – the time when the mother told them a story
✖ lokacin uwa ta ba su labari – feels ungrammatical

Other options for “when” exist (like sa’ad da), but lokacin da is very standard.

In uwa ta ba su labari, what is the role of ta, and why is it ta, not ya?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun in the perfective (past) aspect.

uwa – mother (feminine noun)
ta – she (feminine, past/perfective)
ta ba su labari – she gave them a story

Hausa verbs always agree in person and gender with their subject:

uwa ta ba su labari – the mother (she) gave them a story
uba ya ba su labari – the father (he) gave them a story

So it is ta because uwa is grammatically feminine; if the subject were masculine (like uba, “father”), you would use ya.

What does su in ta ba su labari refer to? How do I know it means “the children”?

Su is the 3rd person plural object pronoun: them.

ba – to give
su – them
ba su – give them

In context, the only plural group already mentioned is yara (children), so su naturally refers back to yara. Hausa, like English, uses pronouns to avoid repeating full nouns:

Yara suka yi murmushi lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari.
→ The children … when the mother gave them a story.

If more than one plural group had been mentioned, the context (or extra words like ba su yaran ba labari “gave the children a story”) would be used to avoid ambiguity.

Why is it written ba su and not one word like basu?

In standard Hausa spelling, the verb ba (“give”) and the object pronoun su (“them”) are usually written as two words:

ba su – give them
ba ni – give me
ba shi – give him

Many people informally write some of these together (bashi, bani, basu, etc.), but in careful or textbook Hausa you’ll most often see them separated, especially in teaching materials:

✔ ta ba su labari – she gave them a story
✔ ta ba shi labari – she told him a story

So here, ba su as two words is the recommended, clear form.

What does labari mean here? Is it “story” or “news”?

Labari in Hausa can mean both “story” and “news / report / account” depending on context.

In everyday speech:
- labari can mean story, tale, account
- or news, information

In a bedtime context (… kafin barci, “before sleep”), labari is naturally understood as a story told to children.

If you want to be more explicitly “fairy-tale / children’s story”, you can also meet:

tatsuniya – folktale, fable, story (common for children’s tales)

But here labari is perfectly fine as “story” in the bedtime sense.

What does kafin barci mean literally, and could I say it in another way?

Kafin barci literally means “before sleep”.

kafin – before (preposition derived from kafa / kawo kafin …)
barci – sleep, sleeping

So … labari kafin barci ≈ a story before sleep → a bedtime story.

Other natural ways to express this idea include:

kafin su kwanta – before they lie down / before they go to bed
kafin su yi barci – before they sleep

All of these express a similar idea, but kafin barci is a compact and common phrase.

Can I move lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Hausa allows you to move that “when…” clause to the front, just as English does:

Lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci, yara suka yi murmushi.

This is fully grammatical and natural. The difference is mainly in information flow and style:

Yara suka yi murmushi lokacin da …
– slightly more focus on what the children did.
Lokacin da …, yara suka yi murmushi.
– starts by setting the time / situation, then tells what they did.

Both orders are correct; choice often depends on what you want to emphasize in storytelling or conversation.

Does the sentence describe a single event in the past, or a repeated habit (like “every night the children smiled…”)? How would I say a habitual action?

As it stands, the sentence naturally describes a specific event in the past:

Yara suka yi murmushi lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci.
→ one particular time when this happened.

To talk about a habitual or repeated bedtime routine, Hausa would typically use different aspect marking, often with the imperfective or adverbs showing repetition, for example:

Yara kan yi murmushi idan uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci.
– The children usually/typically smile when the mother tells them a story before bed.
Yara suna yin murmushi duk lokacin da uwa ta ba su labari kafin barci.
– The children are in the habit of smiling every time the mother tells them a story before bed.

So the suka yi / ta ba su forms in your sentence are best read as one completed event in a narrative.