Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ni ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba kafin wannan rana. - I have never taken a taxi before this day.

Ni is the independent pronoun: “I / me.” It’s used for emphasis or clarity.
ban is actually ba + ni fused together:
- ba = negation particle
- ni = 1st person singular pronoun
  → ba + ni → ban = “I (neg.)” in the verb slot, roughly “I did not / I have not.”

So you could say:

Ni ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba… – I (for emphasis) have never taken a taxi…
Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba… – I have never taken a taxi…

The Ni at the beginning is optional and mainly adds emphasis, like “I, personally, have never…”

What does the ban … ba structure mean, and why is it split around the verb?

ban … ba is Hausa’s standard way of negating a perfective (completed) action in the first person singular.

ban at the start = ba + ni (“I (neg.)”)
ba at the end = closes off the negative clause

So:

Na taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya. – I have (at some time) taken a taxi.
Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba. – I have never taken a taxi.

The negation is discontinuous:

first part: ban before the verb phrase
second part: ba near the end of the clause

This is normal in Hausa. If there’s more material (like kafin wannan rana “before this day”), it usually comes after that final ba:

Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba kafin wannan rana.
Literally: I-not ever taking-of car of-hire not before this day.
→ “I had never taken a taxi before this day.”

What exactly does taɓa mean here? Is it just “to touch”?

The verb taɓa in Hausa does mean “to touch” in many contexts, but in this construction, especially with negation, it has a special aspectual meaning:

In negative sentences, (ba) taɓa (ba) often corresponds to English “ever” / “never”.

Examples:

Ban taɓa zuwa Kano ba. – I have never been to Kano.
Kin taɓa ganin shi? – Have you ever seen him?

In your sentence:

ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba
→ literally: “I have not ever done the taking of a hired car.”
→ naturally: “I had never taken a taxi.”

So taɓa here is like an “ever”-marker combined with the main action (ɗaukar mota ta haya).

Why is it ɗaukar and not ɗauka?

The base verb is ɗauka = “to take, to pick up.”

Hausa often uses the verbal noun (a kind of gerund) when combining with verbs like taɓa, iya (“be able to”), fara (“start”), daina (“stop”), etc.

ɗauka – the verbal noun “taking”
When it directly governs another noun (its object), it appears in a construct form with -r:
- ɗaukar mota – “taking of a car”

So:

Ban taɓa ɗauka ba. – I have never taken (it) / I have never done taking.
Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba. – I have never done the taking of a hired car.

That -r is a linker that shows “taking-of-car” is one tight phrase, like a genitive/construct phrase.

What does ɗaukar mota ta haya literally mean, and why is it used for “taking a taxi”?

Breakdown:

ɗaukar – the construct verbal noun of ɗauka, “(the) taking (of)”
mota – “car” (grammatically feminine in Hausa)
ta – agreement/linking pronoun for a feminine noun, here agreeing with mota
haya – “hire, renting”

Literally:

ɗaukar mota ta haya ≈ “the taking of a car of hire” → “taking a hired car.”

In practice, this is how you talk about using a car you pay for, which in many contexts is essentially “taking a taxi” or “taking a rental car.” English collapses that concept into “take a taxi,” but Hausa describes it more literally as “take a car of hire.”

Depending on context, this could be:

a taxi in a city
a car you rent for a trip

But colloquially, mota ta haya often does mean a taxi.

What is mota ta haya grammatically, and why is it ta and not na?

mota ta haya is a kind of genitive / possessive-like construction:

mota – car (feminine noun)
ta – feminine agreement/linking pronoun (“her/its”)
haya – hire, rental

Literally: “car her-of hire” → “a hired car”.

Why ta?

Hausa has gender agreement:
- mota is feminine
- so you use ta (feminine form), not na (masculine form).

Compare:

gida na haya – a house for rent (since gida is usually masculine, you’d use na)
mota ta haya – a hired car (since mota is feminine, you use ta)

So ta is not “she” in a personal sense here; it’s an agreement marker linking mota with haya.

What does kafin wannan rana mean exactly, and can the order change?

kafin wannan rana breaks down as:

kafin – “before” (preposition)
wannan – “this”
rana – “day”

So: kafin wannan rana = “before this day.”

Word order:

The normal order is kafin + [noun phrase]:
- kafin wannan rana – before this day
- kafin asuba – before dawn
- kafin tafiya – before the journey/leaving

In your full sentence, the time expression comes at the end:

… ba kafin wannan rana.

You can also quite naturally put the time phrase earlier for emphasis:

Kafin wannan rana, ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba.
“Before this day, I had never taken a taxi.”

Both orders are grammatical; the original just keeps the time expression at the end.

Is this Hausa sentence more like “I have never taken a taxi” or “I had never taken a taxi”?

Hausa perfective (as in ban taɓa … ba) doesn’t mark the “have” vs “had” distinction in the same way English does. Context decides whether you translate it as present perfect or past perfect.

Without a specific reference time,
Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba.
→ “I have never taken a taxi.”
With kafin wannan rana (“before this day”), there’s an explicit reference point in the past. In English, that usually sounds better as past perfect:
- “I had never taken a taxi before this day.”

So:

Grammatically: it’s just a negative perfective with taɓa (never/ever).
Translationally: you choose “have never” or “had never” based on the time expression and surrounding narrative.

Could I leave out Ni or the final ba and still be correct?

Leaving out Ni:
Yes, that’s very normal:
- Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba kafin wannan rana.
  is fully grammatical and common.
Ni only adds emphasis or clarity (“I, specifically”).
Leaving out the final ba:
This is not standard in a sentence like this. In normal affirmative–negative pairs, the two-part negation is expected:
- Na taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya. – I have taken a taxi (ever).
- Ban taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya ba. – I have never taken a taxi.

Dropping the final ba can happen in some colloquial speech patterns or in very short answers, but for a complete, careful sentence like this one, you keep the final ba.

How would I say the opposite: “I have taken a taxi before this day”?

To make it positive, you remove the ba … ba negation and use the normal 1st person perfective na:

Na taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya kafin wannan rana.

Breakdown:

Na – I (perfective, positive)
taɓa – ever / at some time
ɗaukar mota ta haya – taken a hired car
kafin wannan rana – before this day

Meaning: “I have (at some time) taken a taxi before this day.”

If you want to be very explicit, you could add a frequency:

Na taɓa ɗaukar mota ta haya sau ɗaya kafin wannan rana.
“I had taken a taxi once before this day.”

How do I pronounce the tricky consonants like ɓ and ɗ in taɓa and ɗaukar?

Both ɓ and ɗ are implosive consonants, which English doesn’t have, but you can approximate them:

ɓ (in taɓa)
- Like “b” but with a slight inward movement of air.
- Easiest approximation: pronounce it as a clear “b” but notice Hausa speakers may “pull” the sound slightly inward.
ɗ (in ɗaukar)
- Like “d” but again with a gentle inward airflow.
- Approximate with a strong, clear “d” at the front of the tongue.

If you can’t do true implosives yet, using a normal b and d will usually still be understood; you just won’t sound fully native-like.