Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, ba a cikin tanda ba.

Mother is cooking soup on the stove, not in the oven.

Breakdown of Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, ba a cikin tanda ba.

• ne: to be
• dafa: to cook
• ba … ba: not
• a kan: on
• uwa: the mother
• a cikin: inside
• miya: the soup
• murhu: the stove
• tanda: the oven

Questions & Answers about Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, ba a cikin tanda ba.

What exactly does tana mean here, and why is it used with uwa?

Tana is a single word that does two jobs at once:

• it marks the subject as 3rd person singular feminine (roughly “she”), and
• it marks progressive aspect (“is …‑ing”).

So Uwa tana dafa miya is literally like saying “Mother she‑is cooking soup”, which in good English is “Mother is cooking soup.”

Because uwa (“mother”) is naturally feminine, Hausa uses the feminine progressive form tana (compare: yana for “he is”, suna for “they are”, etc.).

The normal structure is:

• [Full noun subject] + [progressive form] + [verb]
  • Ali yana tafiya. – Ali is walking.
  • Uwa tana dafa miya. – Mother is cooking soup.

How would the meaning change if we said Uwa ta dafa miya instead of Uwa tana dafa miya?

• Uwa tana dafa miya = Mother is cooking soup (right now / currently).
  Progressive, ongoing action.

• Uwa ta dafa miya = Mother cooked soup / Mother has cooked soup.
  Completed action (perfect / simple past), not ongoing.

So tana (progressive) vs ta (perfect) is a real meaning difference:

• tana dafa – in the middle of cooking
• ta dafa – finished cooking

Could I leave out uwa and just say Tana dafa miya a kan murhu?

Yes, that is grammatically fine if the context already makes it clear who “she” is.

• Tana dafa miya a kan murhu. – She is cooking soup on the stove.

Hausa often drops the full noun when it’s obvious from context, and just uses the progressive form (here tana) as the subject.

But if you are introducing the information and you want to be clear you mean “Mother”, you normally keep the noun:

• Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu.

In dafa miya, which word is the verb, and do I need any preposition between them?

• dafa is the verb – “to cook / to boil (food in liquid)”.
• miya is the object – “soup / stew / sauce”.

So dafa miya literally means “cook soup”.
You do not put a preposition between them; the food comes directly after dafa:

• dafa shinkafa – cook rice
• dafa nama – cook meat
• dafa miya – cook soup

This verb + direct object pattern is very normal in Hausa.

Why doesn’t Hausa use a word like “the” or “a” before miya, murhu, or tanda?

Hausa doesn’t have separate words for “the” and “a/an” like English does.

Instead, definiteness is usually shown by:

• Context, or
• Suffixes and other modifiers, for example:
  • miyar – “the soup / that specific soup” (with a possessive or following description)
  • miyar doya – the yam soup
  • miyar nan – this soup

In Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, each noun is understood from context:

• miya – soup (in general, or “some soup”)
• murhu – a/the stove
• tanda – an/the oven

English forces you to choose “the” or “a”, but Hausa can leave it up to context.

What is the difference between a kan murhu and a cikin tanda?

Both phrases start with a, a general locative preposition (“at / in / on”), but the second word changes the type of location:

• a kan murhu

  • a – at/on
  • kan – top/surface
  • murhu – stove / cooking fire
  • Together: “on (top of) the stove.”

• a cikin tanda

  • a – at/in
  • cikin – inside (the inside of)
  • tanda – oven
  • Together: “in(side) the oven.”

So:

• a kan = on top of
• a cikin = inside / in

You’ll see these very often:

• a kan tebur – on the table
• a cikin gida – in the house

What’s the difference between murhu and tanda?

Both are related to cooking, but they are different appliances:

• murhu

  • a stove / hearth / cooking fire
  • where a pot sits on top (three‑stone fire, gas burner, charcoal stove, etc.)

• tanda

  • an oven
  • a closed, heated space where you bake or roast things inside (bread, cakes, etc.)

So the sentence is contrasting cooking on an open stove (murhu) with cooking inside an oven (tanda).

Why is ba repeated in ba a cikin tanda ba? What does that structure mean?

The pattern ba … ba is a common way to make a negative statement or to negate a focused phrase in Hausa.

In this sentence:

• ba a cikin tanda ba literally means something like
  “[it is] not in the oven.”

There’s no verb written (like “to be”), but it is understood. The first ba starts the negation; the last ba closes it and gives it emphasis.

So in context:

• Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, ba a cikin tanda ba.
  = Mother is cooking soup on the stove, not in the oven.

The ba … ba focuses the contrast: stove – not oven.

Can I drop the a in ba a cikin tanda ba and just say ba cikin tanda ba?

Yes, you will also hear and see:

• ba cikin tanda ba

Both:

• ba a cikin tanda ba
• ba cikin tanda ba

can mean “not in the oven.”

The a is the general locative preposition; in this kind of short negative phrase, it is often optional in everyday speech. Including it (ba a cikin tanda ba) sounds a bit more explicit / careful, but both are understood the same way for most learners.

Is the comma before ba a cikin tanda ba important in Hausa?

The comma is just punctuation, not a special grammar marker.

It helps show the contrast in writing:

• Uwa tana dafa miya a kan murhu, ba a cikin tanda ba.
  → …on the stove, not in the oven.

In speech, this contrast is mainly shown by intonation and stress, not by anything you can “hear” like the comma. You could also write it without a comma and the grammar would be the same, though the contrast might look less clear in writing.