Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tun ina ƙarami ina son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi. - Since I was small I have liked birds and trees.

tun + time word:
- Tun jiya – since yesterday
- Tun safiya – since morning
tun (da) + clause:
- Tun da na taso / Tunda na taso – Since I grew up

Here it introduces a background time that stretches from childhood up to now.

Why is ina used with ƙarami? I thought ina was “I am doing …”, not “I am small.”

In Hausa, ina + adjective / noun can describe a current state, similar to “I am being X / I am in the state of X”.

ina ƙarami – “I am small/young (at that time)”
ina lafiya – “I am well / I’m fine”
ina cikin gida – “I am inside the house”

With tun, Tun ina ƙarami is an idiomatic way to say “when I was little / since I was little”.

So here ina is not “I am doing”, but “I am (in a state)”, used for a state of being (being small/young).

Why is ina repeated? Could we just say Tun ina ƙarami, son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi?

You need ina (or some subject marker) in front of the second part too:

Tun ina ƙarami, ina son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi.

There are two separate ideas:

ina ƙarami – “I (was) small/young”
ina son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi – “I (am) loving / I like birds and trees”

Each clause needs its own verb/subject marker. Dropping the second ina would make the second part ungrammatical.

You could change the structure, for example:

Tun ina ƙarami nake son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi.

Here nake is another subject marker (“it’s I who love…”), but you still cannot leave the verb/marker out completely.

Why is it ina son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi instead of a simple past like “I loved”?

ina son uses the imperfective/progressive form (ina) plus the verbal noun son (“love / liking”). Together, ina son X usually means:

“I like X” / “I love X” (as a general, ongoing preference or habit).

When you add tun ina ƙarami, it implies:

“Ever since I was small, I have loved / have liked birds and trees (and I still do).”

So Hausa uses the present/habitual aspect to cover the English idea “have loved from then until now”.
If you wanted a feeling that is more clearly in the past and maybe finished, you’d change it, e.g.:

Tun ina ƙarami na so tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi, amma yanzu ban ƙara so ba.
“When I was little I liked birds and trees, but now I don’t anymore.”

What exactly is son? Why not just say ina so tsuntsaye?

so is the basic verb root “to like / to love”.
son is its verbal noun / noun form, “love / liking”.

In many tense–aspect patterns, Hausa uses a subject marker + verbal noun:

ina son X – I (am in) love (of) X → “I love / like X”
nakan son X – I usually love / tend to like X
zan yi son X – I will love X (lit. “I will do love of X”)

So ina son tsuntsaye is the normal, idiomatic way to say “I like birds”.

Some speakers do say ina so ka zo (“I want you to come”) with so directly, but with direct objects like tsuntsaye, son is very standard and sounds more natural: ina son tsuntsaye.

Does ƙarami mean “small” or “young”? Could I also say “when I was a child”?

ƙarami literally means “small / little”, but when talking about people it very often means “young”:

yarinya ƙarama – a small/young girl
yaro ƙarami – a small/young boy
Lokacin da nake ƙarami – when I was young

So Tun ina ƙarami here naturally means “Ever since I was young / since I was little.”

To say “when I was a child” explicitly, you could say:

Tun ina yaro (male) / Tun ina yarinya (female) – Since I was a boy/girl
Tun ina ƙarami yaro – Since I was a small boy

What is the difference between ƙ and k in ƙarami? Do I really have to pronounce them differently?

In standard Hausa spelling:

k is a regular /k/ sound.
ƙ is an implosive /q‑like sound, made a bit farther back in the mouth with a slight “inward” airflow.

So k ≠ ƙ.
Minimal pairs exist:

kasa – floor, ground
ƙasa – soil, land, country

For many adult learners, the difference is small at first, and people will usually understand you even if you pronounce ƙ like a normal k, especially in context. But it’s good to learn to notice and aim for the difference, because it can change meaning.

Are tsuntsaye and bishiyoyi plural forms? What are their singulars?

Yes, both are plurals:

tsuntsaye – birds
- singular: tsuntsu – bird
- plural pattern: tsuntsu → tsuntsaye (many animal nouns use ‑aye)
bishiyoyi – trees
- singular: bishiya – tree
- plural pattern: bishiya → bishiyoyi (‑ya → ‑yoyi)

So tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi means “birds and trees” (in general, not one specific bird and tree).

What does da mean here? Is it always “and”?

In this sentence da means “and”:

tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi – birds and trees

But in Hausa da is very flexible and can also mean:

with – Zan je da kai. – I will go with you.
than (in comparisons) – Ya fi ni girma da shekara uku. – He’s older than me by three years.
part of other constructions (e.g. tun da / tunda – since; saboda da – because of)

Here, though, it’s simply joining two nouns, like English and.

Could I change the order to tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi → bishiyoyi da tsuntsaye without changing the meaning?

Yes. You can say:

Tun ina ƙarami ina son tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi.
Tun ina ƙarami ina son bishiyoyi da tsuntsaye.

Both mean “Since I was little, I have loved birds and trees.”

The difference is just which item you mention first; the overall meaning doesn’t change.

How would I say “Since I was little, I used to like birds and trees (but I don’t anymore)”?

To suggest that the liking was in the past and has stopped, you usually:

Put the liking clearly in the past.
Add something to show it no longer holds.

For example:

Tun ina ƙarami na kan so tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi, amma yanzu bana so.
“Since I was little I used to like birds and trees, but now I don’t.”

or more simply:

Lokacin da nake ƙarami na so tsuntsaye da bishiyoyi, amma yanzu ba haka ba ne.
“When I was little I liked birds and trees, but now it’s not like that.”

The original ina son by itself normally suggests the feeling still continues up to the present.