Breakdown of Uwa tana nuna ƙauna ga tsuntsaye, ba ta bar yara su cutar da su a lambu.
Questions & Answers about Uwa tana nuna ƙauna ga tsuntsaye, ba ta bar yara su cutar da su a lambu.
tana is a combination of:
- ta = “she” (3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun)
- na = progressive/habitual marker
So tana nuna means “she is showing / she shows (regularly)”.
If you said ta nuna ƙauna, that would normally be completive/past:
- ta nuna ƙauna = “she showed love / she has shown love”
In short:
- tana nuna → ongoing or habitual action (is showing / usually shows)
- ta nuna → completed action (showed / has shown)
Hausa subject pronouns agree with number (singular/plural) and gender (in the singular).
Relevant progressive forms:
- tana = she is (3sg feminine)
- yana = he is / it is (3sg masculine)
- suna = they are (3pl)
The subject of the sentence is Uwa (“mother”), which is grammatically feminine singular, so you must use tana:
- Uwa tana nuna ƙauna… = The mother is showing love…
You would use:
- Yaro yana nuna ƙauna… = The boy is showing love…
- Yara suna nuna ƙauna… = The children are showing love…
- ƙauna means “love, affection”.
- nuna means “to show”.
So nuna ƙauna literally = “to show love”.
The preposition ga is used for the indirect object, often translated as “to / toward / for”.
- nuna ƙauna ga tsuntsaye = “to show love to the birds”
Typical pattern:
- nuna ƙauna ga mutum = show love to a person
- bayyana gaskiya ga shi = explain the truth to him
tsuntsaye means “birds” (plural).
The singular noun is tsuntsu = “bird”.
So:
- tsuntsu = bird
- tsuntsaye = birds
The -e ending is a common plural marker for many Hausa nouns (though plural patterns vary quite a lot).
Hausa generally does not have separate words for “a/an/the”. Definiteness and specificity are understood from context.
Uwa tana nuna ƙauna…
Can be understood as “A mother is showing love…” or “The mother is showing love…” depending on what the speaker has in mind.tsuntsaye can be “birds” in general or specific “the birds” already known in the context.
If you need to be very explicit, you often add other words (like demonstratives) or explanations, but in normal speech context does the job.
bar is the inflected form of the verb bari, which means:
- “to leave, let, allow, permit”
In ta bar yara su cutar da su:
- ta bar = “she lets / she allows / she leaves (them to do something)”
- yara = children
- su cutar da su = for them to harm them
Literally:
- ta bar yara su cutar da su ≈ “she lets the children harm them”
With the negative:
- ba ta bar yara su cutar da su = “she does not let the children hurt them”
There are two different pronouns su here, with different functions:
su (before cutar)
- This su is the subject pronoun for the clause su cutar da su.
- It refers to yara (children).
- Pattern: in Hausa, when a noun introduces a subordinate verb clause, you often repeat the subject with a pronoun:
- yara su tafi = the children (they) should go
- mutane su yi shiru = people (they) should be quiet
su (at the end, after da)
- This su is the object pronoun, meaning “them”, and here it refers back to tsuntsaye (the birds).
So:
- yara su cutar da su = “(that) the children harm them”
- subject su = the children
- object su = the birds
- cuta is a noun meaning “illness, disease, injury, harm”.
- cutar da is a verb phrase meaning “to harm, to injure, to make someone suffer / to cause illness or damage to someone/something”.
The -r in cutar is a linking consonant that often appears when a noun is used in a verbal expression like this.
Examples:
- cuta = disease
- cutar mutum = the disease of a person
- cutar da shi = to harm him / make him suffer / injure him
In the sentence:
- su cutar da su = “that they hurt them / harm them”
In “full” or very careful Hausa, the typical verbal negative pattern is:
- ba … ba
So you could say:
- ba ta bar yara su cutar da su a lambu ba
= she does not let the children hurt them in the garden.
However, in natural speech and much written Hausa, the final ba is often dropped, especially in:
- short sentences
- when the meaning is clear
- in coordinated or subordinate clauses
So:
- ba ta bar yara su cutar da su a lambu
is very normal and still clearly negative.
Both forms are understood as negative; including the second ba is more formal/emphatic.
- lambu = garden
- a = preposition usually meaning “in, at, on” (location).
So:
- a lambu = “in the garden / at the garden”
Comparison:
- a lambu = in/at the garden (neutral location)
- cikin lambu = inside the garden (more strongly “inside, within”)
- zuwa lambu = to the garden (direction, movement towards)
In this sentence, a lambu just states where the possible action (hurting the birds) would take place.
Uwa here is the common noun meaning “mother”, not a personal name. It’s like saying “(The) mother is showing love…”.
You can also hear:
- màma / mama = mum / mom
Both are used in everyday speech, but uwa is the more neutral, dictionary-style word.
Examples:
- uwata = my mother
- uwarku = your (pl) mother
- mamata = my mum (more informal / affectionate)
Yes, Hausa generally uses SVO (Subject–Verb–Object) word order, similar to English.
Breakdown:
- Uwa (Subject)
- tana nuna (Verb phrase: is showing)
- ƙauna (Direct object: love)
- ga tsuntsaye (Indirect object: to the birds)
- ba ta bar (Negative verb phrase: she does not let)
- yara (Subject of the subordinate clause)
- su cutar da su (Verb phrase: [they] harm them)
- a lambu (Locative phrase: in the garden)
So overall the structure is quite parallel to the English version:
- “The mother is showing love to the birds; she does not let the children hurt them in the garden.”