Likita ya nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma tun muna yara.

The doctor showed us in a picture how the bone in the hand grows from when we are children.

Breakdown of Likita ya nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma tun muna yara.

• ne: to be
• nuna: to show
• yaro: the child
• a: in
• mu: us
• likita: the doctor
• hannu: the hand
• yadda: how
• tun: since
• ƙashi: the bone
• hoto: the picture
• girma: to grow

Questions & Answers about Likita ya nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma tun muna yara.

Why do we have both Likita and ya in Likita ya nuna? Isn’t that like saying “The doctor he showed”?

In Hausa, you almost always need a pronoun + tense/aspect marker before the verb, even when you already said the subject as a noun.

• Likita = the doctor (full noun subject)
• ya = 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun + completive (perfective) aspect marker, roughly he (did)
• nuna = to show

So structurally you get:

• Likita ya nuna… = The doctor, he showed… → which simply means The doctor showed…

This is normal and required in Hausa. The noun (Likita) is like a topic, and ya is the real grammatical subject marker before the verb.

What exactly does ya add to the meaning in ya nuna?

Ya here does two main jobs:

1. Person/gender: it says the subject is 3rd person singular masculine (he/it).
2. Aspect: with a bare verb like nuna, it typically gives a completive / perfective meaning—an event viewed as finished.

So:

• ya nuna ≈ he showed / he has shown (completed action)
• Compare with yana nunawa = he is showing (ongoing) or he usually shows (habitual), using yana instead of ya.

Without ya, the verb nuna cannot stand as a normal finite verb in a sentence.

What is the role of mana in Likita ya nuna mana?

Mana is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to us / for us”.

It comes from the preposition ma (to, for) + mu (we/us), in a special combined form.

So:

• ya nuna mana = he showed (something) to us
• ya nuna mu (with plain mu) would be he showed us in the sense of making us the thing on display (not the receivers). That would be wrong in this context.

In practice, for “show (someone) something”, you use:

• nuna mini – show me
• nuna maka/miki – show you (m/f)
• nuna masa/mata – show him/her
• nuna mana – show us
• nuna muku – show you (pl.)
• nuna musu – show them

Why is the order ya nuna mana a hoto and not ya nuna a hoto mana?

In Hausa, clitic pronouns like mana usually come immediately after the verb, before other phrases.

Typical order:

1. Verb
2. Object pronoun (if any)
3. Prepositional phrases, adverbials, etc.

So:

• ya nuna mana a hoto = he showed us in a picture ✔
• ya nuna a hoto mana sounds unnatural or wrong.

The indirect object pronoun mana wants to be close to the verb.

What does a mean in a hoto and how flexible is it?

A is a common preposition that can mean in, at, on depending on context.

• a hoto = in a picture / on a picture
• a hannu = in the hand / on the hand
• a gida = at home

You could also say a cikin hoto (inside a picture), which feels a bit more explicitly inside, but a hoto is perfectly natural and the most straightforward way to say in a picture here.

What does yadda do in yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma?

Yadda means how / the way that and introduces a manner clause, similar to English how or the way …:

• yadda … yake girma = how it grows / the way it grows

So the larger sentence part:

• … nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma …
  = … showed us in a picture how the bone in the hand grows …

Why do we have ƙashi a hannu and not ƙashin hannu?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different feels:

• ƙashi a hannu = bone in the hand (emphasizes location)
• ƙashin hannu = the hand’s bone / the bone of the hand (more possessive/genitive)

In this medical/explanatory context, ƙashi a hannu focuses on where the bone is (in the hand) while talking about its growth.
You might use ƙashin hannu when talking about that specific bone as belonging to the hand.

Grammatically:

• ƙashi a hannu – preposition a
  • noun
• ƙashin hannu – genitive/possessive construction (ƙashi
  • linker -n
    • hannu)

What is yake in ƙashi a hannu yake girma?

Yake is a combination of:

• ya – 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun
• ke – one of the imperfective (ongoing/habitual) aspect markers

So yake girma means something like:

• it grows / is growing / grows (in general)

Here yake girma describes the general process by which the bone in the hand grows.

Why is it yake girma and not yana girma after yadda?

Both yana girma and yake girma are imperfective forms, but after relative/wh-words like:

• yadda (how)
• inda (where)
• lokacin da (when)
• wanda/wadda (who/which)

Hausa strongly prefers the -ke form (yake, take, suke, etc.).

So:

• yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma ✔ (natural)
• yadda ƙashi a hannu yana girma ✖ (sounds wrong/unnatural)

You will see yake very often inside clauses introduced by such words.

What aspect or time does yake girma express here?

Yake girma is imperfective. In this sentence it expresses a general/ongoing process, not a single completed event:

• yake girma = grows (in general), is in the process of growing, develops

So the doctor is explaining the typical growth process of the bone, not a one-time growth event.

What does tun mean in tun muna yara?

Tun is a preposition/adverb meaning since / from (the time when) in a temporal sense.

• tun
  • clause/phrase = since / from the time when …

Examples:

• tun ina yaro – since I was a child
• tun dazun – since a short while ago / from a moment ago
• tun jiya – since yesterday

In the sentence:

• tun muna yara = since we were children / from when we were children

How does muna yara work? Why is it muna with a “present-ish” form, but the meaning is past (“we were children”)?

Muna is:

• mu – we
• na (contracted) – imperfective marker → muna

In many contexts muna + noun/adjective can function like “being X”:

• muna karatu – we are studying / we study
• tun ina yaro – since I was a child (literally: from when I am-being child)

With tun, the time is clearly in the past, so muna yara is understood as:

• we being children → when we were children / since we were children

So the combination tun + (imperfective form) is a common way to say “since I/you/he/we were …”.

Other examples:

• Na sanshi tun ina ƙarami. – I’ve known him since I was small.
• Ta zauna a nan tun tana ɗaliba. – She has lived here since she was a student.

Could you rephrase tun muna yara in another way in Hausa?

Yes, there are several close alternatives, for example:

• tun muna ƙanana – since we were little (small)
• tun muna yara ƙanana – since we were little children
• tun lokacin da muke yara – since the time when we were children

They all carry roughly the same idea.

Tun muna yara is short, very common, and completely natural.

What is the difference between ƙashi and kashi in pronunciation and meaning?

The consonants ƙ and k are different sounds in Hausa:

• ƙ – implosive /ʠ/ (made by sucking in slightly)
• k – regular /k/ (like English k)

Meanings:

• ƙashi (with ƙ) = bone
• kashi (with plain k) = portion, percent, or stool/excrement (depending on context)

So mixing them up can give very unwanted meanings. In this sentence, only ƙashi (bone) is correct.

Could the whole sentence be rearranged without changing the meaning much?

You have a little flexibility, but some parts are more fixed than others.

Fairly natural variants:

• Likita ya nuna mana yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma a hoto tun muna yara.
• Likita ya nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashin hannu yake girma tun muna yara.

But you should normally keep:

• ya nuna mana together (verb + indirect object pronoun), and
• yadda … yake girma together (the yadda clause with its verb).

The original:

• Likita ya nuna mana a hoto yadda ƙashi a hannu yake girma tun muna yara.

is very natural and clear.