Breakdown of Yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki kafin in tafi aiki.
Questions & Answers about Yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki kafin in tafi aiki.
“Yau da safe” literally means “today in the morning” (i.e. this morning).
- Yau = today
- da safe = in the morning / morning-time
It’s a very common time expression that naturally comes at the beginning of the sentence, just like English:
- Yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki…
This morning I cleaned the room and the bathroom…
You can move it, but it’s less common and can sound marked or slightly unusual:
- Na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki yau da safe…
Grammatically possible, but the neutral, natural place for time phrases in Hausa is usually at the beginning of the sentence, so the original order is best.
In “na tsabtace”, the na is both:
- a subject pronoun = I, and
- a perfective marker = marking a completed action (often past).
So na tsabtace = I (have) cleaned / I cleaned.
Compare:
- na tsabtace = I cleaned (completed)
- ina tsabtace = I am cleaning / I clean (progressive/habitual)
- zan tsabtace = I will clean (future)
In this sentence, the perfective “na” indicates the cleaning is already finished before the time of speaking.
They are related but not the same:
tsabta = cleanliness; clean (as a noun/adjective idea)
- e.g. Gidan nan yana da tsabta. – This house is clean / has cleanliness.
tsabtace = to clean (as a verb – “to make clean”)
- e.g. Na tsabtace ɗaki. – I cleaned the room.
So in “na tsabtace ɗaki”, you must use tsabtace (the verb “to clean”), not tsabta (the noun “cleanliness”).
Hausa does not use separate words like “the” or “a/an” as English does. There is no article in the phrase:
- ɗaki = room
- bandaki = bathroom / toilet
Context tells you whether to understand it as “a room” or “the room”.
In this sentence, the speaker is talking about their usual living space, so in natural English we say:
- “the room and the bathroom”
But in Hausa it stays simply:
- ɗaki da bandaki
No extra word is added for “the”.
Here, da means “and”:
- ɗaki da bandaki = room and bathroom
This da = and is very common for joining nouns and phrases.
Hausa da has several functions, depending on context:
“and” – coordination:
- ruwa da abinci – water and food
“with” – accompaniment:
- Na zo da abina. – I came with my friend.
Part of certain time expressions:
- da safe – in the morning
- da rana – in the afternoon
- da dare – at night
In your sentence, da is clearly functioning as “and” between two nouns.
They refer to different types of rooms:
ɗaki
- Basic meaning: room
- Often used to mean bedroom or a general indoor room.
bandaki
- Bathroom / toilet / washroom
- The place where you bathe, shower, or use the toilet.
So “na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki” = “I cleaned the room and the bathroom.”
“kafin in tafi” uses the subjunctive (or “irrealis”) form for I:
- in tafi = that I go / before I go
Here:
- kafin = before
- in = I (subjunctive subject marker)
- tafi = go
- aiki = work
So literally: “before I go (to) work.”
You can hear “kafin na tafi aiki” in casual speech in some areas, but “kafin in tafi aiki” is:
- more standard
- more clearly expressing something that hasn’t yet happened at the reference time (the going is after the cleaning, from the morning’s perspective).
In purpose, temporal, or conditional clauses, Hausa normally prefers the subjunctive forms like in tafi, ka tafi, ya tafi, etc.
No. They just look the same in writing, but they are completely different:
- English “in” = preposition (in the house, in the morning, etc.)
- Hausa “in” here = 1st person singular subjunctive marker (= I, in a special mood).
So:
- kafin in tafi = before I go, not “before in go”.
It’s closer to something like “before (that) I go” in English.
tafi means “to go”.
- in tafi aiki literally = “that I go work”
In Hausa, when you say “go to do X” (go to work, go to school, go home), you often omit a preposition like “to”. The destination just follows the verb:
- Na tafi aiki. – I went (to) work.
- Na tafi gida. – I went home.
- Na tafi makaranta. – I went (to) school.
So you do not add an extra “zuwa” or “ga” before aiki in this common pattern.
“in tafi aiki” is already correct and natural.
aiki generally means work, job, or task.
In this context:
- kafin in tafi aiki = before I go to work (my job)
Hausa does not need to say “my” here; context makes it clear it is your job or your place of work.
Yes. The sentence:
Yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki kafin in tafi aiki.
Breakdown:
- Yau – today
- da safe – in the morning
- na – I (perfective subject marker)
- tsabtace – cleaned (to make clean)
- ɗaki – room
- da – and
- bandaki – bathroom / toilet
- kafin – before
- in – I (subjunctive)
- tafi – go
- aiki – work / job
Natural English:
“This morning I cleaned the room and the bathroom before going to work.”
(or: “before I went to work”)
Changing na to ina changes the aspect (the time-view of the action):
Na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki.
- Perfective → completed action
- “I cleaned the room and the bathroom.” (it’s done)
Ina tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki.
- Imperfective/progressive → ongoing/habitual
- “I am cleaning the room and the bathroom.” (right now)
- or “I (usually) clean the room and the bathroom.” (habitual, depending on context)
In your original sentence with Yau da safe, the perfective na is the natural choice because you’re talking about something you already finished this morning.
Yes, but they are used a bit differently.
da safe – in the morning (a fixed time-expression):
- Yau da safe – this morning
- Gobe da safe – tomorrow morning
safiya – morning (as a noun), often with prepositions:
- da safiya or da safe – in the morning
- a safiya – in the morning (less common in this exact phrase)
In everyday speech, “Yau da safe” is very standard and idiomatic for “this morning”.
You might also hear “da safiya”, but “da safe” is extremely common and is exactly right in this sentence.
Yes, ɗ is different from d in Hausa.
- d – a regular “d” sound, like in English “dog”.
- ɗ – an implosive “d”. To approximate it:
- Put your tongue where you would for d,
- But slightly “pull” air in rather than pushing air out,
- It sounds a bit heavier and “swallowed”.
Hausa learners often start by pronouncing ɗ just as a strong d, and then refine it over time.
So:
- ɗaki ≈ DAH-kee (but with that special implosive ɗ if you can produce it).
You can move it, but it changes the focus and feels less neutral:
Original (most natural):
Yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki kafin in tafi aiki.
→ Time (this morning) is introduced first, then what you did, then the “before I went to work” detail.Fronting the kafin-clause:
Kafin in tafi aiki, yau da safe na tsabtace ɗaki da bandaki.
→ Acceptable, but sounds more like you are emphasizing “before going to work” as your starting point.
In everyday speech, the original word order is the most common and natural for this meaning.