Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti. - A boy held the cup at his mouth, but mother told him to put it down on the plate.

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.

A boy held the cup at his mouth, but mother told him to put it down on the plate.

Breakdown of Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.

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Questions & Answers about Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.

What is a word‑for‑word breakdown of the sentence?

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.

yaro – boy
ya – he (3rd person masculine subject pronoun, also marks aspect/tense)
riƙe – hold, grasp
kofi – cup
a – in / at / on (general preposition)
baki – mouth

So: Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki
→ literally: Boy he-held cup in mouth.

amma – but
uwa – mother
ta – she (3rd person feminine subject pronoun)
ce – say (here: said)

So: amma uwa ta ce
→ but mother she-said

ya – he (here: “that he should…”, subjunctive)
ajiye – put down, set down, leave (on a surface / in a place)
ta – it/her (3rd person feminine object pronoun; here = the cup)
a – on / at
kan – top / surface (here with a = on top of)
faranti – plate, dish

So: ya ajiye ta a kan faranti
→ literally: [that] he put‑down it on top‑of plate.

Why is ya used after yaro? Could I just say Yaro riƙe kofi?

In standard Hausa, a full noun subject is normally followed by a subject pronoun that also carries tense/aspect:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi – The boy held / is holding a cup.
Uwa ta ce – The mother said.

You cannot normally drop ya or ta in such sentences.
✗ Yaro riƙe kofi is ungrammatical in ordinary speech; it sounds like something is missing.

So ya here does two jobs at once:

It agrees with yaro (masculine singular).
It marks the aspect/tense (completive in the first clause, subjunctive in the second).

Why is ya used twice, and do both ya have the same meaning?

They are the same form, but their function depends on position:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki
- Here ya is the completive (perfective) 3rd person masculine form.
- Rough sense: the boy held / has held / ended up holding the cup in his mouth.
… amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.
- After ce (say), ya is interpreted as subjunctive: that he should put it down.
- It expresses an order, wish, or instruction reported from the mother.

So it is the same word ya, but:

before the verb riƙe in a main clause → completive
after ta ce introducing reported speech/command → subjunctive (“that he should…”).

Why is it ta ce with uwa but ya riƙe with yaro?

Because Hausa marks grammatical gender on the subject pronoun:

yaro (boy) is grammatically masculine → ya
- Yaro ya riƙe kofi. – The boy held the cup.
uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine → ta
- Uwa ta ce. – The mother said.

So:

masculine subject → ya (he)
feminine subject → ta (she)

Why is there no word for “the” in yaro and uwa? How do we know it is “the boy” and “the mother”?

Hausa does not have a separate word that works exactly like English the.

Definiteness is usually understood from context, word order, and sometimes from possessive forms:

yaro can mean a boy or the boy depending on context.
uwa can mean a mother or the mother / his mother / her mother, again from context.

You can make something clearly definite in other ways, for example:

yaron nan – this boy
uwar sa – his mother
uwar ta – her mother

In the given sentence, the situation feels specific and familiar, so an English speaker naturally translates with the boy and the mother.

In a baki, where is the word “his”? Why isn’t it a bakinsa?

a baki literally means in (the) mouth and can be understood as in his mouth from context:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki.
The subject is yaro, so listeners automatically interpret baki as his mouth.

You can make the possessor explicit:

a bakinsa – in his mouth
a bakinta – in her mouth

So both are possible:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki. – The boy held a cup in his mouth.
Yaro ya riƙe kofi a bakinsa. – The boy held a cup in his mouth (more explicit/clear).

The shorter a baki is just less specific but very common.

What does ajiye add that a simpler verb like sa would not?

Both can involve putting something somewhere, but they differ in nuance:

sa – to put, to place, to wear (more general placement)
- Sa kofin a kan tebur. – Put the cup on the table.
ajiye – to put down and leave somewhere, to set aside, to keep/store
- Ajiye kofin a kan faranti. – Put the cup down on the plate (and leave it there).

In ya ajiye ta a kan faranti, the mother is not just telling him to move the cup momentarily, but to set it down and leave it there, not in his mouth.

In ya ajiye ta a kan faranti, what does ta refer to, and why is it feminine?

ta here is the 3rd person singular feminine object pronoun (it/her).

It refers back to kofi (cup):

kofi is grammatically feminine in Hausa.
So when you replace kofi with a pronoun as a direct object, you use ta.

Compare:

Yaro ya riƙe kofin. Uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta.
The boy held the cup. The mother said he should put it down.

If the noun were masculine, you would use shi (him/it) instead:

yaro (boy – masculine) → Na gani shi. – I saw him.
kofi (cup – feminine) → Na gani ta. – I saw it (the cup).

Could we just repeat kofi instead of using ta? For example: ya ajiye kofi a kan faranti?

Yes, that is also grammatical:

Uwa ta ce ya ajiye kofi a kan faranti.

Using ta is more natural if kofi was just mentioned and is clearly understood; it avoids repetition, like English put it down instead of put the cup down.

So you have two options:

with pronoun: ya ajiye ta a kan faranti – he should put it down on the plate
repeating the noun: ya ajiye kofi a kan faranti – he should put the cup down on the plate

Both are fine; pronouns are simply more typical in flowing discourse.

What is the difference between a, kan, and a kan? Why not just a faranti?

a – a very general preposition: in, at, on.
kan – top, surface, head.
a kan – literally on (the) top (of) → on, on top of.

So:

a faranti – at/on the plate (more general location)
a kan faranti – on top of the plate (on its surface)

In practice, for placing an object onto the surface of something, a kan is very common and often clearer than just a.

What does faranti mean exactly? Is it “plate”, “dish”, or “saucer”?

faranti is a general word for a flat eating or serving dish: plate, dish, or sometimes a tray‑like plate, depending on size and context.

In this sentence, since it is associated with a kofi (cup), an English speaker might translate it as:

plate
saucer
small dish

All are reasonable; faranti itself does not distinguish those fine shades.

How is the tense/aspect of ya riƙe best translated? Past (held) or present (is holding)?

Formally, ya riƙe is completive (perfective), often corresponding to a simple past:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi. – The boy held the cup.

However, with verbs of holding/position, Hausa can use the completive to describe a current state resulting from a completed action. So in context it can be translated as:

The boy is holding a cup in his mouth.

If you wanted a clear ongoing/progressive sense, you could also say:

Yaro yana riƙe da kofi a baki. – The boy is holding a cup in his mouth.

In the given sentence, either held or was holding / is holding can be a good translation depending on the wider story context.

Is the pause/comma before amma important? Could I start a new sentence with Amma?

Punctuation is flexible, because Hausa is primarily a spoken language and writing conventions vary. Both of these are acceptable in writing:

Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki, amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.
Yaro ya riƙe kofi a baki. Amma uwa ta ce ya ajiye ta a kan faranti.

In speech, amma simply introduces a contrast (but). The choice between comma and full stop is mainly a stylistic writing choice, not a grammatical one.