Learn Hardcore Hausa: Gobe da safe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida. - Tomorrow morning I will go to the motor park before six o'clock.

Zan is the future marker for 1st person singular (I will). Historically it is za + ni (future marker + pronoun), but in normal speech it is fused as zan.

You use za plus a pronoun; many of these fuse in writing:

zan tafi – I will go (za + ni)
za ka tafi – you (m.sg.) will go
za ki tafi – you (f.sg.) will go
zai tafi – he will go (za + ya)
za ta tafi – she will go
za mu tafi – we will go
za ku tafi – you (pl.) will go
za su tafi – they will go

In modern usage you would almost always say/write zan tafi, not za ni tafi.

Do I need to say ni (I) explicitly, like Ni zan tafi tashar mota…, or is zan tafi enough?

Zan tafi already includes the “I” in its form, so it is normally enough:

Zan tafi tashar mota… = I will go to the motor park…

Adding ni is possible but changes the emphasis:

Ni zan tafi tashar mota… – It’s *me who will go to the station…* (contrastive or emphatic)

You use Ni zan… when you want to contrast with someone else or stress I (and not someone else). In a neutral sentence, just zan tafi is natural.

Why is tafi used here and not je for “go”?

Both tafi and je can translate as to go, but they are used slightly differently.

tafi – to go, to leave, to set off (very common, quite general)
- Zan tafi gida. – I will go home.
- Sun tafi kasuwa. – They went to the market.
je – to go (to someone/somewhere), often used where the destination/person is the main focus
- Zan je wajen likita. – I will go to the doctor.
- Zan je Kano. – I will go to Kano.

In many cases both are possible:

Zan tafi tashar mota.
Zan je tashar mota.

Both would be understood, but tafi tashar mota is very common and sounds completely natural, especially with places you “set out” to, like home, market, motor park, office, etc.

What does tashar mota literally mean, and why is it tashar and not just tasha?

Breakdown:

tasha – station, stop, terminal (for vehicles, buses, etc.)
mota – car, vehicle (often used for buses or motor vehicles in general)

To say “station of vehicles”, Hausa uses a linker sound at the end of the first noun, often written as -r or -ar:

tasha + r + mota → tashar mota

So:

tasha – station
tashar mota – (the) vehicle station, motor park, bus station

This -r/-ar is very common in noun–noun constructions:

gidar malam – the teacher’s house (gida + r + malam)
tashar jirgin ƙasa – train station (tasha + r + jirgin ƙasa)

What does kafin mean in kafin ƙarfe shida, and how does it work in the sentence?

Kafin means “before” (in time or sequence).

In your sentence:

kafin ƙarfe shida = before six o’clock

Structure:

Zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida.
= I will go to the motor park before six o’clock.

The pattern is:

[event] + kafin + [reference time / event]

The thing introduced by kafin is the later time; the main clause happens earlier:

Zan tashi kafin ƙarfe biyar. – I will get up before five o’clock.
Za mu gama kafin ka dawo. – We’ll finish before you come back.

So kafin always comes before the phrase that you are counting back from (here, ƙarfe shida).

What does ƙarfe mean, and how is it used to tell the time, like in ƙarfe shida?

Literally, ƙarfe means iron, but in time expressions it works like “o’clock / at (time)”.

Pattern:

ƙarfe + number = X o’clock

Examples:

ƙarfe ɗaya – one o’clock
ƙarfe biyu – two o’clock
ƙarfe uku – three o’clock
ƙarfe hudu – four o’clock
ƙarfe biyar – five o’clock
ƙarfe shida – six o’clock

So in your sentence:

kafin ƙarfe shida = before six o’clock

You can add more detail if needed:

ƙarfe shida da rabi – half past six
ƙarfe shida da minti goma – six ten

How can I say specifically “before six in the morning” versus “before six in the evening” in Hausa?

You add a phrase to show morning or evening to the time expression.

Common patterns:

… na safe – in the morning
… na rana – in the daytime / early afternoon
… na yamma – in the evening
… na dare – at night

So:

kafin ƙarfe shida na safe – before six in the morning (before 6 a.m.)
kafin ƙarfe shida na yamma – before six in the evening (before 6 p.m.)

You can combine this with the rest of your sentence:

Gobe da safe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida na safe.
(A bit redundant because gobe da safe already says “tomorrow morning,” but it is grammatically fine.)

More natural is usually to choose one clear indication of morning:

Gobe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida na safe.
Gobe da safe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida.

How do I pronounce the letter ƙ in ƙarfe, and is it different from k?

Yes, ƙ is different from k in Hausa, and the difference can change meaning.

k – a regular “k” sound (a plain voiceless velar stop, like English back).
ƙ – an ejective k; it’s “tighter” and made with a little glottal “pop.”

Practical tips for ƙ:

Start to say k, but tense your throat/glottis and release without letting air flow out smoothly.
It often feels like a short, sharp k with a tiny “clicky” quality.

Minimal pairs exist where k vs ƙ change meaning, so keeping the distinction matters in careful speech. For ƙarfe, always use ƙ, not k.

Does the order Gobe da safe … kafin ƙarfe shida sound natural, or should I place kafin ƙarfe shida earlier?

The original order is very natural:

Gobe da safe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida.

Typical flow in Hausa is:

Broad time: Gobe da safe (tomorrow morning)
Subject + verb + place: zan tafi tashar mota (I will go to the motor park)
More specific time limit: kafin ƙarfe shida (before six o’clock)

You can move kafin ƙarfe shida:

Gobe da safe kafin ƙarfe shida zan tafi tashar mota.
(Possible, but a bit heavier at the start.)

The first version is the most neutral and natural for everyday speech.

Overall, does the sentence sound natural in Hausa, or would a native speaker say it differently?

It sounds natural and correct as it is:

Gobe da safe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida.

Some common, equally natural variations you might also hear:

Zan tafi tashar mota gobe da safe kafin ƙarfe shida.
Gobe zan tafi tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida na safe. (if you really want to specify morning)
Gobe da safe zan wuce tashar mota kafin ƙarfe shida. (wuce = pass by/stop at, depending on context)

But your original sentence is perfectly good, clear, and idiomatic Hausa.