Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tun kafin rana ta faɗi, kare yana komawa gida daga yawo a waje. - Before the sun sets, the dog returns home from walking outside.

kafin = before (from the verb gaba/kafa “to be before” → kafin “before”).
tun = since, from (a certain time), as early as, already.

Putting them together, tun kafin strengthens the idea of already / well before / even before.

You can say “Kafin rana ta faɗi” and it is perfectly correct: Before the sun sets.
Adding tun gives more emphasis, like:

Tun kafin rana ta faɗi = Already before the sun sets / Even before sunset / Long before the sun goes down…

So both forms are possible; tun just adds a nuance of earliness or already.

Why is it “rana ta faɗi” and not just “rana faɗi”? What is the role of ta here?

In Hausa, a full clause normally needs a subject pronoun before the verb, even when a noun subject has just been mentioned. The pattern is:

[Noun subject] + [agreeing pronoun] + [verb]

So:

rana ta faɗi
- rana = the sun / the day
- ta = 3rd person singular feminine pronoun (“she/it”)
- faɗi = to fall, to set (for the sun), to fall down

rana is grammatically feminine, so it takes ta.

You cannot normally say “rana faɗi” as a full sentence; it sounds incomplete. Hausa likes that “double subject” idea (noun + matching pronoun) in ordinary clauses:

kare yana gudu “the dog is running”
yarinya ta zo “the girl came” (yarinya
- ta)

Does “rana ta faɗi” refer to the sun setting or the day ending? What exactly does rana mean here?

rana can mean both:

the sun, and
daytime / (duration of) day

In expressions with faɗi (to fall), “rana ta faɗi” most naturally means:

“the sun has set” or “the sun goes down”.

By extension, that also implies daytime is over, but the image is specifically the sun going down.

If you wanted to be especially clear about the day ending, speakers might also use verbs like:

rana ta ƙare – “the day is finished/over.”

What tense or aspect is “yana komawa”, and how is this form built in Hausa?

yana komawa is a progressive / continuous (often also used for present or habitual) construction.

Structure:

ya = 3rd person singular masculine pronoun (“he/it”)
na = aspect marker (progressive here; often pronounced together with ya as yana)
komawa = verbal noun, “the act of returning” (from the verb koma, “to return, go back”)

So:

kare yana komawa gida
= the dog is returning home / the dog keeps returning home / the dog usually returns home (around that time).

This pattern is very common:

yaro yana karatu – “the boy is reading / studies”
mace tana aiki – “the woman is working”

Form: [subject pronoun] + na/ke + verbal noun.

What is the difference between “yana komawa gida” and “ya koma gida”?

Both involve the verb koma (“to return, go back”), but:

ya koma gida
- Simple perfective: he returned home / he went back home (finished action).
yana komawa gida
- Progressive / habitual sense:
  - he is (in the process of) returning home
  - or he returns home (around that time, as a regular thing)

In your sentence with “Tun kafin rana ta faɗi”, using yana komawa gives a sense of a typical or ongoing pattern:

Before the sun goes down, the dog is already on its way home / usually heads home.

Using ya koma gida would sound more like one completed event at that time, not a general or ongoing behavior.

What exactly is “komawa”, and how is it related to the verb “koma”?

koma is the basic verb: to return, to go back, to come back.

komawa is its verbal noun (sometimes called a “masdar” in Hausa grammars), roughly “returning / the act of returning.” Many Hausa verbs form a verbal noun by adding -wa (or a similar ending) to the verb stem:

koma → komawa – to return → returning
tashi → tashin / tashiwa – to get up → getting up
zama → zama / zama wa (depending on dialect and context)

In progressive constructions, Hausa usually uses the verbal noun, not the bare verb:

yana komawa – he is returning
suna magana – they are speaking (from magana, “speech / speaking”)
muna cin abinci – we are eating (literally: we are eating-of food, with cin from ci)

What does “yawo” mean in “daga yawo a waje”, and is it a verb?

yawo is a noun meaning things like:

a walk, a stroll
wandering about, roaming
an outing

You often see it in the expression:

yin yawo – to go for a walk / to stroll / to wander about
(literally: doing yawo)

In your sentence, yawo is the activity the dog is doing outside:

daga yawo a waje
= from (its) wandering / from walking about outside.

So yawo itself is not a finite verb here; it is an activity noun.

Why do we say “daga yawo”? What does “daga” do in this phrase?

daga is a very common preposition meaning “from” (in space, time, or origin).

In “daga yawo a waje”, it marks the starting point or source the dog is coming back from:

daga = from
yawo = walking about, roaming
a waje = outside

So:

yana komawa gida daga yawo a waje
= it (the dog) is returning home from (having been) out walking outside.

Other examples with daga:

na dawo daga kasuwa – I came back from the market
ta fito daga gida – she came out from the house
daga yau – from today (starting today)

What does “a waje” mean, and is there a difference between “waje” and “a waje”?

waje by itself is a noun: outside / exterior / place / space.
a is a preposition, roughly “in/at/on” (location).

Together:

a waje = outside (literally: in the outside / at the outside).

You could say:

yana waje – he is outside
suna wasa a waje – they’re playing outside

In your sentence, “yawo a waje” clarifies that this yawo (strolling/wandering) is outside (not, for example, wandering around inside the house).

Could the sentence work without “a waje”, since “yawo” already suggests being outside?

Yes, you could say:

Tun kafin rana ta faɗi, kare yana komawa gida daga yawo.

Listeners would still picture the dog having been out somewhere. yawo does often imply going out or about.

Adding “a waje” simply makes it explicit and vivid that the roaming happened outside, and not just “from walking around (somewhere)”. It’s a natural emphasis rather than a grammatical necessity.

Does “kare” mean “a dog” or “the dog” here, since there is no article like “a” or “the” in Hausa?

Hausa does not have dedicated indefinite or definite articles like English “a/an” or “the”. The bare noun can be interpreted as either, depending on context.

So kare can mean:

a dog (introducing an unspecified dog)
the dog (if a particular dog is already known or obvious from context)

In your sentence, in isolation, you could translate it either way:

Before the sun sets, *a dog returns home…*
Before the sun sets, *the dog returns home…*

In a story, if the dog had been introduced earlier, English would typically use “the dog”, but Hausa just continues with kare.

Is it important that the time clause “Tun kafin rana ta faɗi” comes at the beginning, or could it come later in the sentence?

Hausa word order is generally flexible for adverbial time clauses like this. You can say:

Tun kafin rana ta faɗi, kare yana komawa gida daga yawo a waje.
Kare yana komawa gida daga yawo a waje tun kafin rana ta faɗi.

Both are grammatically correct and natural.

Starting with “Tun kafin rana ta faɗi” puts emphasis first on the time setting (before sunset). Putting it at the end makes it more like additional information after the main statement. English behaves similarly:

Before the sun sets, the dog returns home…
The dog returns home… before the sun sets.