Breakdown of Motsa jiki mai sauƙi, misali tafiya a hankali, yana da kyau ga jiki.
Questions & Answers about Motsa jiki mai sauƙi, misali tafiya a hankali, yana da kyau ga jiki.
Motsa jiki is literally “moving the body”.
- motsa = to move, to cause movement
- jiki = body
Together, motsa jiki is a set phrase that means exercise / physical exercise.
In this sentence, Motsa jiki mai sauƙi is functioning as a noun phrase:
“Light / simple exercise” (literally: exercise that is easy).
mai is a very common word in Hausa that helps turn another word into an adjective-like description.
Pattern here:
- sauƙi = ease, lightness, simplicity
- mai sauƙi = “that has ease” → easy / simple / light
So:
- motsa jiki mai sauƙi = exercise that is easy / light exercise
You’ll often see similar patterns:
- mace mai kirki = a woman who is good / kind
- abinci mai yawa = food that is plenty → a lot of food
Yes. misali means example and is used very much like “for example” in English.
Structure:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi, misali tafiya a hankali, …
= Simple exercise, for example walking slowly, …
The commas in the Hausa sentence match the English style of inserting an example in the middle. You could also say:
- Misali, motsa jiki mai sauƙi kamar tafiya a hankali…
= For example, simple exercise like walking slowly…
Here misali introduces the example tafiyā a hankali.
Breakdown:
- tafiyā = walking, a walk, the act of going/walking
- a hankali = literally “in gentleness / in carefulness,” but in many contexts it means slowly or carefully
So tafiyā a hankali is literally “walking in gentleness/care”, which in normal, everyday speech is understood as walking slowly or walking gently.
You can use a hankali with many verbs to mean “slowly” or “carefully”:
- Yi a hankali. = Do it slowly / carefully.
- Tukuici a hankali. = Drive slowly.
yana da kyau literally breaks down as:
- ya = he/it (3rd person masculine singular)
- na = progressive/continuous marker → yana = “he/it is (in state of) …”
- da = with / possessing
- kyau = beauty, goodness
So yana da kyau is a common way to say “it is good” (or “he is good / it has goodness”).
In this sentence:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi … yana da kyau ga jiki.
≈ Light exercise … is good for the body.
Literally: “Light exercise, for example walking slowly, is with goodness for the body.”
In modern Hausa, yana da … is the standard spoken way to express “it is / he is …” in many stative expressions, especially with da:
- yana da kyau = it is good
- yana da tsada = it is expensive
- yana da kyau sosai = it is very good
You could technically form other structures, but yana da X is the natural, everyday pattern; ya da kyau on its own is not used in this meaning.
So here, yana is not really “he is doing” something; it’s part of a fixed pattern for having / being characterized by something good, bad, expensive, etc.
Yes, in this sentence motsa jiki is treated as singular, so the verb agrees with it:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi … yana da kyau ga jiki.
= Light exercise … is good for the body.
If you had a clearly plural subject, you would use suna:
- Waɗannan motsa jikin suna da kyau ga jiki.
= These exercises are good for the body.
Think of motsa jiki here like exercise in English, which is also grammatically singular (“Exercise is good,” not “Exercise are good”).
ga is a preposition that, in this context, means for:
- ga jiki = for the body
So:
- yana da kyau ga jiki = it is good for the body.
You cannot drop ga here. yana da kyau jiki would be wrong or at least very unnatural. You need ga to introduce the beneficiary / target:
- kyau ga yara = good for children
- mugunta ga lafiya = bad for health
- jiki = body (physical body)
- lafiya = health, well-being
In this sentence, ga jiki focuses on the physical body.
If you say:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi … yana da kyau ga lafiya.
that would mean “Light exercise … is good for (your) health.”
Both are correct, but:
- ga jiki = emphasizes the body itself
- ga lafiya = emphasizes overall health/well-being
sauƙi is pronounced roughly like:
- sau as in English “sow” (rhyming with “go”)
- ƙi with a special implosive / glottalized k sound, not the same as plain k.
In Hausa:
- k is an ordinary [k] sound.
- ƙ is an implosive consonant, often written with a small hook under the letter. You make it by pulling the larynx slightly down as you articulate it, giving it a “heavier” quality.
Meaning difference: in many words, changing k to ƙ changes the word completely, so it matters:
- kowa = everyone
- ƙowa = (different word, not standard; the point is: consonant contrast is meaningful)
So try to learn to hear and produce ƙ distinct from k. In sauƙi, it’s always with ƙ, meaning ease / relief / lightness.
Yes, you can say:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi, kamar tafiya a hankali, yana da kyau ga jiki.
Here:
- kamar = like / such as
The nuance:
- misali = for example (points out one example)
- kamar = like / such as (shows a typical instance or comparison)
In practice, both are very close in meaning in this context:
- misali tafiya a hankali = for example, walking slowly
- kamar tafiya a hankali = like walking slowly / such as walking slowly
Both sound natural here. The sentence still means that walking slowly is one kind of light exercise that is good for the body.
The structure is very typical Hausa:
Subject noun phrase:
- Motsa jiki mai sauƙi = light/simple exercise
Inserted example, in apposition:
- , misali tafiya a hankali, = , for example walking slowly,
Predicate (comment about the subject):
- yana da kyau ga jiki. = is good for the body.
So the basic pattern is still Subject – Verb – Complement:
- [Motsa jiki mai sauƙi …] [yana] [da kyau ga jiki].
In spoken Hausa, the commas would just be slight pauses, but the order is exactly what you’d expect for a simple declarative sentence.