Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa tana kunna rediyo idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi. - Mother turns on the radio when she wants to hear a nice song.

So Uwa tana kunna rediyo is like saying “Mother turns on / is turning on the radio,” and in context it really means “Mother tends to turn on the radio (whenever …).”

If you said Uwa ta kunna rediyo, with ta instead of tana, you’d be using the perfective (completed action):

Uwa ta kunna rediyo ≈ “Mother turned on the radio / has turned on the radio.”

So:

tana kunna → ongoing or habitual action
ta kunna → one completed action (or, in some contexts, a specific future event)

That’s why the sentence uses tana, because it’s talking about what she does whenever she wants to hear nice music (a repeated/habitual situation).

Why do we say idan tana so instead of idan ta so or leaving out tana?

idan introduces a full clause; Hausa still needs a clear subject and tense/aspect there, so you cannot drop it:

❌ idan so ta ji… (ungrammatical)
✅ idan tana so ta ji…

The choice between tana so and ta so is again progressive vs. perfective:

tana so = “she wants / she likes (now or generally)”
ta so = “she wanted/liked (already, at some specific time)”

In this sentence we’re describing what happens whenever she is in the mood to hear pleasant music, so the ongoing/habitual form tana so is natural:

idan tana so – “when(ever) she wants”

You could say idan ta so in some contexts, but it would sound more like a one-off or more “completed” wanting (e.g. in a conditional about the future), not the general habit that this sentence is talking about.

Why does the verb switch to ta ji instead of tana ji after so?

After verbs of wanting / liking such as so, Hausa usually uses a kind of subjunctive form in the next verb, which looks like the perfective person marker:

tana so ta ji waƙa…
- tana so = she wants
- ta ji = (that) she hear

So the pattern is roughly:

X na so Y → “X wants to Y”
tana so ta ji → “she wants to hear”

Using tana ji here would sound wrong; tana ji on its own just means “she is hearing / feeling.” After so, Hausa prefers the subjunctive-like form (ta ji, in tafi, mu gani, su zo, etc.).

You’ll also see this same pattern with other subjects:

Ina so in tafi. – “I want to go.”
Suna so su ji waƙa. – “They want to hear a song.”

So ta ji here is not marking a completed action; it’s marking the desired action.

Is idan closer to “if” or “when” in this sentence, and can it mean both?

In this sentence, idan is best understood as “when(ever)”:

… idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi.
“… when(ever) she wants to hear a nice song.”

But idan can mean both “if” and “when”, depending on context:

Idan ka zo, za mu ci abinci. – “If you come, we’ll eat.”
Idan rana ta fito, zafi yake. – “When the sun rises, it’s hot.”

Here, because it’s describing a usual pattern of behavior (what she does every time she wants music), the natural English equivalent is “when(ever)”, not a hypothetical “if.”

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before uwa and rediyo in Hausa?

Hausa does not have articles like English “the” or “a/an.” Bare nouns cover all of those meanings, and context tells you whether it’s definite or indefinite.

So:

uwa can mean “a mother,” “the mother,” or even “Mother” (as a familiar figure), depending on the situation.
rediyo can be “a radio” or “the radio.”

In this sentence we naturally read it as:

Uwa → “(the) mother / Mom”
rediyo → “the radio”

If Hausa speakers need to be very specific (e.g., this mother, that radio), they use demonstratives or other devices (like wannan rediyo – “this radio”), not articles.

Does kunna only mean “turn on (an electronic device)”, or can it be used more generally?

kunna is broader than just electronics. It means “to cause something to start working, giving light, burning, or playing.” Common uses include:

kunna rediyo – turn on the radio
kunna talabijin – turn on the TV
kunna fitila – turn on a lamp
kunna wuta – light a fire
kunna sigari – light a cigarette

So in this sentence, tana kunna rediyo is perfectly natural: she “switches on” the radio, i.e. makes it start playing.

In ta ji waƙa, does ji mean “hear” or “listen,” and how would this differ from using saurare?

The verb ji is very broad. It literally means “to perceive / feel” and is used for:

hearing
feeling (emotion, physical sensation)
even sometimes taste or smell (in certain expressions)

In context, ta ji waƙa is best translated as “she hears a song” or more naturally “she listens to a song / music.” Hausa doesn’t always distinguish sharply between “hear” and “listen” the way English does.

saurare (or its object form saurara / saurari) means “to listen (attentively)”:

Yana sauraron waƙa. – “He is (actively) listening to music.”

Difference in feel:

ji waƙa – “to hear music,” often also used where English says “listen to music”; very common and neutral.
sauraron waƙa – emphasizes the act of paying attention to the music.

In the given sentence, ji waƙa is the most natural and common way to say it.

How does the phrase waƙa mai daɗi work grammatically? Is mai daɗi an adjective?

Yes—functionally, mai daɗi is acting like an adjective phrase describing waƙa.

Breakdown:

waƙa – song, music
mai – literally “one that has / possessor of”
daɗi – pleasantness, sweetness, enjoyment

So waƙa mai daɗi = “a song that has pleasantness” → “a nice/pleasant song.”

This noun + mai + noun pattern is very common in Hausa for describing qualities:

mutum mai kuɗi – a rich person (person with money)
abinci mai zaki – sweet food
gida mai kyau – a nice house

Adjectives and adjective-like phrases usually come after the noun in Hausa, so waƙa mai daɗi is literally “song pleasant,” not “pleasant song.”

How do we know that ta in ta ji waƙa refers back to uwa and not someone else?

The pronoun ta is 3rd person singular feminine (“she”). In this sentence:

uwa is a female human noun → grammatically feminine
earlier we had Uwa tana kunna… idan tana so… – all with feminine markers (tana, tana)

So the most natural and almost automatic reading is:

ta ji waƙa = “she hear(s) a song,”
and “she” = the same mother already being talked about.

If the speaker wanted someone else to be the one hearing the song (for example, her child), they would normally introduce that new subject explicitly and keep the reference clear, e.g.:

Uwa tana kunna rediyo idan ɗanta yana so ya ji waƙa mai daɗi.
– “Mother turns on the radio when her son wants to hear a nice song.”

Because there is only one feminine human referent in the original sentence, ta is understood to refer back to uwa.

Could we change the word order to: Idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi, uwa tana kunna rediyo? Would that still be correct?

Yes, that word order is correct and natural in Hausa.

Both of these are fine:

Uwa tana kunna rediyo idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi.
Idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi, uwa tana kunna rediyo.

The meaning is the same: “Mother turns on the radio when she wants to hear a nice song.”

Putting the idan… clause first can slightly highlight the condition/time (“Whenever she wants to hear a nice song, …”) but it doesn’t change the basic meaning. It’s similar to English:

“Mother turns on the radio when she wants to hear a nice song.”
“When she wants to hear a nice song, Mother turns on the radio.”

Both are good, grammatical Hausa sentences.

Is there another common way to say “when she wants to listen to music” in Hausa, for example using son jin?

Yes. A very common alternative uses the verbal noun of so and ji:

idan tana son jin waƙa mai daɗi

Breakdown:

tana son – “she has the desire of / she feels like” (literally “she is in the state of wanting”)
jin waƙa – “hearing/listening to a song” (verbal noun jin from ji)

So:

idan tana so ta ji waƙa mai daɗi
– “when she wants to hear a nice song”
idan tana son jin waƙa mai daɗi
– “when she wants the hearing of a nice song / when she feels like hearing a nice song”

Both are natural. The version in your sentence (with tana so ta ji) uses a full verb clause; the son jin version packages the action into a verbal noun phrase, but the practical meaning is extremely similar.

Are rediyo and waƙa the standard spellings, and are there alternative forms I might see?

In modern standard Hausa orthography:

rediyo is a common spelling for “radio.”
- You may also see radiyo or minor variations, but rediyo is very widespread.
waƙa is standard for “song / music.”
- Note the special letter ƙ, representing an implosive /kʼ/ sound.

You’ll also see:

daɗi with ɗ, another special Hausa consonant.

In a lot of informal writing (especially online or in SMS), people sometimes drop the special letters and just write plain k, d, t, so you might see:

waka instead of waƙa
dadi instead of daɗi

But in carefully written Hausa, waƙa and daɗi (with the hooked letters) are the standard forms, and rediyo is a normal, accepted spelling for “radio.”