Breakdown of Da safe ni ina cin burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari.
Questions & Answers about Da safe ni ina cin burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari.
Safe means morning.
Da safe is a set phrase that means in the morning / in the mornings. The da here functions a bit like “at / in” and turns safe into a time expression.
You will normally say da safe, not just safe, when you mean “in the morning” as a time adverbial. The same pattern appears in:
- da yamma – in the evening
- da dare – at night
Ina already shows first person singular (“I”), so ni is not required for basic grammar.
You add ni mainly for emphasis or contrast, something like:
- Da safe ni ina cin buredi...
As for me, in the morning I eat bread... (maybe unlike other people)
If you just want a neutral statement, Da safe ina cin burodi da shayi... is perfectly correct and common.
Yes, a nuance of emphasis:
Da safe ina cin burodi...
→ neutral: In the morning I eat bread...Da safe ni ina cin burodi...
→ emphasizes ni: In the morning *I (as opposed to someone else) eat bread...
or *Me, in the morning I eat bread...
So the meaning of the action is the same; the second version just highlights the subject I / me.
In this structure, Hausa uses a verbal noun (like English eating, drinking) after ina.
- ci = to eat (basic verb stem)
- cin (actually cî-n) = the verbal noun eating, plus a linking -n to the following noun
So ina cin burodi is literally like saying:
- “I am at the eating of bread.” → I eat bread / I am eating bread.
This pattern is very common:
- ina cin abinci – I am eating food
- ina shan ruwa – I am drinking water (from sha “to drink” → shan “drinking”)
- ina karatun Hausa – I am studying Hausa (from karatu “reading/study”)
So ina + verbal noun is the usual way to express an ongoing or regular activity.
They use different aspect markers:
ina cin burodi
- Imperfective / progressive
- Can mean I am eating bread (now) or I eat bread (generally / habitually), depending on context.
na ci burodi
- Perfective / completed action
- Means I ate bread (a finished event, e.g. earlier today).
So with Da safe...:
- Da safe ina cin burodi... – In the morning I (usually) eat bread...
- Da safe na ci burodi... – This morning I ate bread... (a specific event).
In burodi da shayi, da means and:
- burodi da shayi – bread and tea
In da safe, da functions more like a preposition at / in:
- da safe – in the morning
- da yamma – in the evening
It’s the same word, but Hausa da has several related uses:
- and (between nouns):
- burodi da shayi – bread and tea
- with (accompaniment):
- na zo da aboki na – I came with my friend
- at / in (in some time expressions):
- da safe, da yamma, da dare
The meaning is decided by context.
Mai literally means “one that has / that possesses”.
So:
- shayi mai madara da sukari
≈ tea that has milk and sugar → tea with milk and sugar
Structure:
- shayi – tea (head noun)
- mai madara da sukari – describing the tea: having milk and sugar
You can also say:
- shayi da madara da sukari – tea with milk and sugar
Both are natural. Mai often sounds a bit more like describing a type/quality:
- mota mai sauri – a fast car (car having speed)
- gida mai hawa biyu – a two-storey house (house having two floors)
So shayi mai madara da sukari is like “milk-and-sugar tea”, describing what kind of tea it is.
It goes with both.
The phrase breaks down as:
- shayi – tea
- mai (madara da sukari) – having (milk and sugar)
So it is “tea having milk and sugar”.
This pattern mai X da Y is common to say “having X and Y”:
- mota mai fari da baki – a car that is white and black
- wuri mai itatuwa da furanni – a place with trees and flowers
In Hausa, descriptive elements usually follow the noun they describe.
So instead of “milky tea” (adjective before noun), you get:
- shayi mai madara – tea having milk
Other examples:
- burodi fari – white bread
- mota ja – red car
- mutum mai hankali – a sensible / intelligent person (person having sense)
So the order in shayi mai madara da sukari is the normal Hausa order:
[noun] + [describing phrase]
Yes, that is possible and understandable:
- Ni ina cin burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari da safe.
Time expressions like da safe are fairly flexible in position. The most common places are:
- at the beginning:
- Da safe ina cin burodi...
- or at the end:
- Ina cin burodi... da safe.
Putting da safe at the beginning often slightly highlights the time frame (“As for mornings…”), but in everyday speech both positions are fine.
A straightforward negative is:
- Da safe ba na cin burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari.
→ In the morning I do not eat bread and tea with milk and sugar.
Explanation:
- ba ... na ... – negative imperfective for I don’t / I’m not doing something
- na is the 1st person imperfective marker
- cin – verbal noun “eating”
- burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari – as before
So:
- Ina cin burodi... – I eat / am eating bread...
- Ba na cin burodi... – I don’t eat / am not eating bread...
The part that changes is the imperfective subject marker (the ina bit). Here is the pattern with cin burodi da shayi...:
- Ni ina cin burodi da shayi... – I eat / am eating bread and tea...
- Kai kana cin burodi da shayi... – You (m.sg.) eat / are eating...
- Ke kina cin burodi da shayi... – You (f.sg.) eat / are eating...
- Shi yana cin burodi da shayi... – He eats / is eating...
- Ita tana cin burodi da shayi... – She eats / is eating...
- Mu muna cin burodi da shayi... – We eat / are eating...
- Ku kuna cin burodi da shayi... – You (pl.) eat / are eating...
- Su suna cin burodi da shayi... – They eat / are eating...
With da safe, you can put it in front for all of them:
- Da safe muna cin burodi da shayi mai madara da sukari. – In the morning we eat bread and tea with milk and sugar.