Breakdown of Lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi, ba mu fita waje.
Questions & Answers about Lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi, ba mu fita waje.
Lokacin da literally means “the time that/when” and functions as a subordinating conjunction meaning “when”.
- Lokaci = time
- -n = linking ending (“of / the”)
- da = that / when (here, it introduces a clause)
So Lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi = “The time when the rain fell heavily” → “When the rain fell heavily”.
You can use Lokacin da at the beginning or later in the sentence:
- Lokacin da ya zo, na tafi. – When he came, I left.
- Na tafi lokacin da ya zo. – I left when he came.
Ruwa means water in general. Ruwan sama is literally “water of the sky”, which is the normal way to say rain.
- ruwa = water
- ruwa + -n → ruwan (“water-of”)
- sama = sky / above
So ruwan sama = “the water of the sky” → rain.
This -n is a linking ending that connects two nouns in a genitive-like structure (“X of Y”).
You’ll see this pattern everywhere, e.g.:
- gidan malam – the house of the teacher / the teacher’s house
- ruwan lemo – soft drink (literally “water of orange/soda”)
You must have the short subject pronoun ya here; you cannot say ruwan sama sauka.
In Hausa, the verb normally comes with a subject pronoun that agrees with the subject:
- ruwan sama = the rain (grammatically masculine singular → uses ya)
- ya sauka = it descended/fell
So ruwan sama ya sauka is roughly “the rain, it fell / it came down”.
This agreement marker (ya) is part of the normal verb structure in Hausa; you don’t drop it even if the noun subject is already mentioned.
Ya sauka is in the perfective aspect. With a past-time context, it usually corresponds to a finished past action, like:
- “it fell”
- “it came down”
- “it has fallen” (depending on context)
So in the sentence:
- Lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi…
→ “When the rain fell heavily…” / “When the rain came down heavily…”
Hausa focuses more on aspect (completed vs. ongoing vs. habitual) than strict past vs. present.
The perfective (here: ya sauka) typically means a completed action.
Da ƙarfi literally means “with strength” or “with force”. In this sentence it functions like an adverb: “strongly / heavily / forcefully”.
- da = with
- ƙarfi = strength, force, power
So ya sauka da ƙarfi = “it descended with strength” → “it fell heavily”.
Hausa often uses da + noun to express “in a … way / with …”, similar to English adverbs:
- ya yi magana da sauri – he spoke quickly (with speed)
- ta yi kuka da ƙarfi – she cried loudly (with force)
The negative is formed with ba … (ba) surrounding the subject pronoun and verb.
In full form for the perfective, you’d usually see:
- Ba mu fita waje ba. – We did not go outside.
Parts:
- ba – negative particle (opens the negation)
- mu – we (subject pronoun)
- fita – to go out / exit
- waje – outside
- ba – (optional closing negative particle in many contexts)
In your sentence, the final “ba” is omitted:
- ba mu fita waje – we didn’t go outside (common in speech and some writing)
So “didn’t” is expressed by the ba + subject (+ verb) structure, not by a separate word like “did”.
In Hausa, the combination of the negative particle and the verb form itself already indicates aspect/tense. In this context, ba mu fita (waje) is understood as negative perfective → “we did not go out”.
There is no extra word like did in English. Instead:
- the subject pronoun form (here mu) and
- the type of negative structure
tell you it’s about a completed past situation. The overall context (“when the rain fell heavily…”) also makes a past-time reading natural.
So:
- ba mu fita waje (ba) → “we didn’t go outside (at that time).”
Fita specifically means “to go out / exit / come out”, focusing on leaving an enclosed or indoor space.
Je is more general, meaning simply “to go” (to some place).
So:
- Na fita waje. – I went outside / I went out.
- Na je kasuwa. – I went to the market.
In your sentence, ba mu fita waje literally means “we did not go out (to the outside)”, which is exactly what English expresses with “we did not go outside.”
Yes. Hausa allows both orders, just like English.
Your sentence:
- Lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi, ba mu fita waje.
→ “When the rain fell heavily, we didn’t go outside.”
You can also say:
- Ba mu fita waje lokacin da ruwan sama ya sauka da ƙarfi.
→ “We didn’t go outside when the rain fell heavily.”
The meaning is the same; only the emphasis and rhythm change slightly. Putting Lokacin da… first highlights the time condition.
ƙarfi is pronounced roughly like “kar-fee”, but with a special implosive consonant at the start:
- ƙ is an implosive k (voiced, produced with a slight inward movement of air). It’s different from normal k, which is an ordinary voiceless [k] sound.
- ƙarfi = strength, force, power
Contrast:
- k (plain k): as in kai (you), kasa (ground/country)
- ƙ (implosive): as in ƙarfi (strength), ƙafa (leg), ƙasa (to put down)
In many accents, learners approximate ƙ with a slightly “softer” or voiced g/k sound. The important thing for now is to notice the spelling difference, because it often distinguishes different words.