Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta ce ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki kullum da safe. - Mother said we should do physical exercise every morning.

Whether it is understood as my mother, our mother, or (the) mother depends on context. Hausa can drop the possessive when it is obvious from the situation. In natural speech, Uwa ta ce… is often understood as Mum/Mother said… (the speaker’s own mother).

If you want to be explicit, you can say, for example:

uwata ta ce… – my mother said…
uwarmu ta ce… – our mother said…

Why is it ta ce and not ya ce after uwa?

In Hausa, the subject pronoun agrees with the gender of the noun:

ta ce = she said (3rd person feminine singular)
ya ce = he said (3rd person masculine singular)

Because uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine, you must use ta:

Uwa ta ce… – Mother said…

Compare:

Baba ya ce… – Father said…
Malam ya ce… – The teacher (male) said…
Malamai suka ce… – The teachers said… (plural: suka)

What exactly does ta ce mean and how is it formed?

ta ce is the perfect aspect of the verb ce (to say), with a 3rd-person feminine subject:

ce – the verb say
ta – 3rd person feminine singular subject pronoun in perfect aspect
ta ce – she said / she has said

Other common forms:

na ce – I said
ka ce – you (m.sg.) said
ki ce – you (f.sg.) said
ya ce – he said / it (masc.) said
mu ce – we said
ku ce – you (pl.) said
suka ce – they said

What does ya kamata mean literally, and how is it used?

ya kamata is a fixed expression meaning should / ought to / it is appropriate that.

Literally:

ya – 3rd person masculine singular perfect (he/it)
kamata – fittingness, suitability

So very literally: “it has become fitting”, but in practice you just learn it as “should / ought to”.

Pattern:

ya kamata + [person pronoun] + [verb]

Examples:

ya kamata in tafi – I should go
ya kamata ka ci abinci – you (m.sg.) should eat
ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki – we should exercise

Negative:

bai kamata mu yi haka ba – we shouldn’t do that
bai kamata ka yi haka ba – you shouldn’t do that

Why do we have both ya and mu in ya kamata mu yi…? Isn’t that two subjects?

It looks like two subjects, but they play different roles:

ya in ya kamata is a kind of dummy “it” (like English it in “it is necessary that…”). It does not refer to we.
mu is the real subject of the following verb yi (do): mu yi = that we do.

So structurally:

ya kamata – it is appropriate / it should be that…
mu yi motsa jiki – we do exercise

Together: it should be that we do exercise → we should exercise.

You always keep ya kamata as ya kamata, regardless of who should do the action; the person is shown by the pronoun that comes after it:

ya kamata in yi… – I should do…
ya kamata ka yi… – you should do…
ya kamata mu yi… – we should do…

Why do we say mu yi motsa jiki instead of just mu motsa jiki?

In Hausa, many activities are expressed as “light verb + verbal noun”, and yi is the most common light verb.

yi = do / make
motsa jiki = exercise (literally moving the body)

So yi motsa jiki is like “do exercise” in English. Saying mu yi motsa jiki is the natural idiom.

You can say mu motsa jiki, but:

mu yi motsa jiki sounds more complete and is the more standard way to say let’s exercise / we should exercise.
Using yi with nouns of activity is very common:
- yi aiki – do work
- yi wanka – take a bath
- yi salla – say prayers

What does motsa jiki literally mean, and is it always “exercise”?

Literally:

motsa – to move, stir
jiki – body

So motsa jiki = moving the body.

In modern usage, motsa jiki is the normal phrase for physical exercise / working out. For a learner, you can safely treat it as “exercise (for fitness)”.

Some notes:

Often used with yi: yi motsa jiki – do exercise.
To talk about the activity as a noun:
- yin motsa jiki – doing exercise / exercise (as a gerund)
To talk about sports more generally, you’ll also hear:
- wasanni – sports, games

What does kullum mean here? Is it “always” or “every day”?

kullum can mean both always and every day, depending on context.

In kullum da safe, it has the sense of “every [single] morning”:

kullum – always / every time / every day
da safe – in the morning

So kullum da safe = every morning.

Other examples:

Ina zuwa aiki kullum. – I go to work every day.
Yana tunawa da ita kullum. – He always remembers her.

If you wanted to be very explicit about “every day” you could also say kowace rana, but kullum is more common and natural here.

How does da safe work? What does da mean in this time expression?

da safe is a set phrase meaning in the morning.

Breakdown:

da – a general preposition; here you can think of it roughly as “at / in (time)”
safe – morning

Common time expressions with da:

da safe – in the morning
da rana – in the afternoon / daytime
da yamma – in the evening
da dare – at night

So kullum da safe literally is always in the morning, i.e. every morning. Word order can sometimes be reversed (e.g. da safe kullum), but kullum da safe is very natural and common.

Why is there no word like “that” after ta ce? In English we say “Mother said that we should…”.

Hausa doesn’t require an explicit word for “that” to introduce reported speech.

Your sentence:

Uwa ta ce ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki…

literally is just:

Mother said we should do exercise…

If you want a word like “that”, Hausa has cewa:

Uwa ta ce cewa ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki… – Mother said that we should exercise…

Both versions are acceptable, but in everyday speech cewa is often dropped after ce, exactly as you see in the example.

What tense is ta ce? Is it one-time past, or could it be habitual?

ta ce is the perfect aspect, and here it normally refers to a completed past event:

Uwa ta ce… – Mother said… (on some particular occasion).

To express something she regularly or currently says (habitual), Hausa would more naturally use a progressive / habitual form with cewa:

Uwa na cewa ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki kullum da safe.
– Mother says / keeps saying that we should exercise every morning.

So in your sentence, ta ce by itself points to something she has already said (not an ongoing habit of saying it).

How would I say “Mother says we should exercise every morning” (present, not past)?

You can use the progressive / habitual construction with cewa:

Uwa na cewa ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki kullum da safe.
– Mother says / is saying / keeps saying that we should exercise every morning.

Variations:

Uwa tana cewa ya kamata mu yi motsa jiki kullum da safe.
(More explicit feminine form; also fine.)

The key change from your sentence:

ta ce (she said) → na cewa / tana cewa (she says / is saying).