Learn Hardcore Hausa: Zuwa yanzu na jira ki minti goma amma ina da awanni biyu kafin lokaci ya ƙare. - Up to now I have waited for you for ten minutes, but I have two hours before the time ends.

Yanzu on its own = now (this moment).
Zuwa yanzu = by now / up to this point in time, often used when you are summing up what has happened so far.

So Zuwa yanzu na jira ki minti goma is naturally understood as So far / By now I’ve waited for you ten minutes, which fits well with the rest of the sentence talking about time limits.

What exactly does na jira mean here, and why not ina jira?

Na jira is the perfective form: I waited / I have waited.

na = 1st person singular perfective subject (I in a completed action)
jira = wait

In context with Zuwa yanzu, na jira ki minti goma is best translated:

I have waited for you ten minutes (so far).

If you said Ina jira ki, that is I am waiting for you (ongoing, present progressive). To express the duration of that ongoing waiting, you could say:

Ina jira ki tun minti goma da suka wuce. – I have been waiting for you since ten minutes ago.

The original sentence uses na jira to focus on the completed amount of waiting up to now (10 minutes), not just the ongoing action.

Why is ki placed after jira in na jira ki, and what does ki mean?

Ki is the object pronoun “you” (singular, feminine). In Hausa, object pronouns normally come after the verb in this kind of sentence:

na gan ki – I saw you (feminine)
zan kira ka – I will call you (masculine)

So:

na – I (perfective subject)
jira – wait
ki – you (feminine object)

Altogether: na jira ki = I waited for you (female addressee).

How would the sentence change if I were speaking to a man, or to more than one person?

You change only the object pronoun at the end:

Speaking to a man (you, singular masculine):
- na jira ka minti goma – I have waited for you (male) ten minutes.
Speaking to several people (you, plural):
- na jira ku minti goma – I have waited for you (all) ten minutes.

So the pattern is:

na jira ki – I waited for you (fem. singular)
na jira ka – I waited for you (masc. singular)
na jira ku – I waited for you (plural)

Why is it minti goma and not goma minti?

In Hausa, the general rule is:

noun + number

So:

minti goma – ten minutes
awanni biyu – two hours
mutane uku – three people
gidaje biyar – five houses

Putting the number before the noun (goma minti) is not normal Hausa word order for counting things. You say minti goma.

Shouldn’t minti be plural here? Why not mintuna goma?

The regular plural of minti (minute) is mintuna:

minti ɗaya – one minute
mintuna biyu – two minutes
mintuna uku – three minutes

You can say mintuna goma for ten minutes, and that is perfectly fine and clear.

However, especially in everyday speech, many speakers commonly say minti goma as a fixed timing phrase, and it sounds very natural. So you will hear both:

na jira ki mintuna goma – I waited for you ten minutes.
na jira ki minti goma – same meaning, common in speech.

For learning purposes, it is good to know that mintuna is the regular plural, but you will often meet minti goma in real usage.

What does amma do in this sentence?

Amma means but / however, and it joins two clauses that contrast with each other.

First clause: Zuwa yanzu na jira ki minti goma – Up to now I’ve waited for you ten minutes.
Second clause: amma ina da awanni biyu kafin lokaci ya ƙare – but I have two hours before the time runs out.

So amma marks the contrast: I’ve already waited some time, but I still have plenty of time left overall.

How does ina da mean I have in amma ina da awanni biyu?

Literally:

ina – I am (progressive/existential form of ni “I”)
da – with

So ina da X is literally I am with X, which in Hausa idiom means I have X (right now / at this time).

Examples:

Ina da kuɗi. – I have money.
Ina da lokaci. – I have time.
Ina da awanni biyu. – I have two hours.

You could add ni for emphasis (ni ina da awanni biyu – me, I have two hours), but normally ina da is enough.

What is awanni, and how is the plural formed from awa?

Awa means hour. Its common plural is the “broken plural” awanni:

awa ɗaya – one hour
awanni biyu – two hours
awanni uku – three hours

So in the sentence, awanni biyu simply means two hours.

Note also that the number still comes after the noun: awanni biyu, not biyu awanni.

What does kafin mean in kafin lokaci ya ƙare, and how does this construction work?

Kafin means before. It can be followed by:

a noun phrase:
- kafin shida – before six (o’clock)
- kafin dare – before night
or a full clause (subject + verb), as in your sentence:
- kafin lokaci ya ƙare – before the time finishes / before time runs out

Structure in your sentence:

kafin – before
lokaci – time
ya – it (3rd singular masc. subject pronoun, referring back to lokaci)
ƙare – finish, be used up

So kafin lokaci ya ƙare literally: before time, it finishes → before the time ends / before the time is up.

What is the role of ya in lokaci ya ƙare?

In Hausa, finite verbs in many tenses/aspects are introduced by a subject pronoun. Even when there is a noun subject, you still usually put the pronoun after that noun.

Here:

lokaci – time (subject)
ya – he/it (3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun)
ƙare – finish, be used up (perfective)

So lokaci ya ƙare is literally time – it finished, which we translate as the time has run out / time is up.

Other examples:

mace ta tafi – the woman left (mace + ta + tafi)
mutane suka zo – the people came (mutane + suka + zo)

Why is it lokaci and not lokacin here? Is there a word for the?

Hausa does not have a separate word like English the. Instead, definiteness is often:

implied by context, or
shown by a suffix -n / -r / -n on the noun (lokaci → lokacin).

So:

lokaci – time (can be general or definite from context)
lokacin – the time / that time (more explicitly definite)

In your sentence, kafin lokaci ya ƙare can be understood as before the time is up from context, even without -n. You could also say:

kafin lokacin ya ƙare – before the time ends

Both are possible. The version with lokacin sounds a bit more like you are referring to a specific known deadline, but in many everyday contexts speakers just say kafin lokaci ya ƙare and the definiteness is understood.