Learn Hardcore Hausa: Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu kafin uwa ta fara girki. - Musa brought firewood to the stove before mother started cooking.

Musa ya kawo…
- Musa = the full noun subject
- ya = 3rd person masculine singular subject marker (“he”)
- kawo = bring (perfective form here)

So ya agrees with Musa in person and gender. This combination [noun] + [subject marker] + [verb] is normal in Hausa narrative sentences.

You generally cannot say ✗ Musa kawo itace…; it sounds ungrammatical. You need the subject marker: Musa ya kawo itace…

Is ya kawo a past tense? How would I say “Musa is bringing” or “Musa will bring”?

Ya kawo is the perfective aspect, which most often corresponds to a completed past action:

Musa ya kawo itace = Musa brought wood / has brought wood.

To express other time meanings:

Progressive / “is bringing”
- Musa yana kawo itace zuwa murhu. = Musa is bringing wood to the stove.
Future / “will bring”
- Musa zai kawo itace zuwa murhu. = Musa will bring wood to the stove.

So:

ya kawo → completed (usually past)
yana kawo → ongoing (“is bringing”)
zai kawo → future (“will bring”)

What exactly does itace mean here? Wood, firewood, or tree?

Itace can mean:

wood / firewood (as a material, especially for burning)
tree, depending on context and tone (which isn’t shown in plain spelling)

In this sentence:

Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu…
The context is bringing something to a murhu (stove / hearth), so itace is best understood as firewood / wood for burning.

For “tree” in a clear, everyday way, many speakers prefer bishiya:

bishiya = tree
itace = wood / firewood (often), or tree in some contexts

What does zuwa mean here, and could I use ga instead (itace zuwa murhu vs itace ga murhu)?

Zuwa is a preposition meaning “to” / “towards” (especially with movement):

kawo itace zuwa murhu = bring wood to the stove.

Ga is more general (“to / for / at / here is”) and is often used:

for giving / showing: ga shi = here it is / here he is
or with indirect objects: ka ba shi littafin (give him the book) – adding ga is possible in certain dialects and styles.

In this particular sentence, zuwa murhu is the natural choice.
✗ itace ga murhu for “wood to the stove” is not idiomatic in standard Hausa.

What exactly is murhu?

Murhu is:

a traditional cooking hearth, fireplace, or stove – usually a place where firewood is burned for cooking.
In rural or traditional settings, it’s often a built clay or stone structure where pots sit above the fire.
In modern contexts it can also be used for “stove,” especially a simple one used with solid fuel.

So zuwa murhu here is “to the stove / hearth / cooking fire.”

Why do we say uwa ta fara girki and not just uwa fara girki?

Exactly the same reason as with Musa ya kawo:

uwa = “mother”
ta = 3rd person feminine singular subject marker (“she”)
fara = start / begin
girki = cooking

Hausa normally requires the subject marker before the verb:

uwa ta fara girki = mother started cooking
✗ uwa fara girki is ungrammatical / incomplete.

So the pattern is:

Musa ya kawo… (masculine: ya)
uwa ta fara… (feminine: ta)

In kafin uwa ta fara girki, is ta fara past, present, or future? In English I might say “before mother starts cooking.”

Formally, ta fara is the perfective (“she started”), but after kafin (“before”) it often refers to an action that is in the future relative to the first action.

So:

Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu kafin uwa ta fara girki.
= Musa brought the wood to the stove before mother started cooking.
(Or more loosely, …before mother started / would start cooking.)

In Hausa, the structure:

kafin + [subject marker] + perfective (e.g. kafin ta fara)

is standard for “before (someone) does/starts X,” even though English often uses a present tense (“before she starts”) in that kind of clause. The time relationship is handled by kafin, not by changing the verb form.

There’s no word for “his” in “before (his) mother started cooking.” How do we know whose mother it is, and how would I say “before my mother started cooking”?

Hausa often omits a possessor when it’s obvious from context. Uwa alone can mean:

a / the mother, and in context may be understood as “his mother,” “her mother,” etc.

If you need to be explicit:

kafin uwar Musa ta fara girki
= before Musa’s mother started cooking.

For “my mother”:

kafin mahaifiyata ta fara girki = before my mother started cooking.
- mahaifiyata = my mother (more formal)
Or: kafin uwata ta fara girki (less formal / dialectal)

So possession is shown inside the noun phrase (uwar Musa, mahaifiyata), not with a separate “his/her/my” word before uwa.

What kind of word is girki? Is it a noun meaning “cooking” or a verb?

Girki is a noun (a verbal noun) meaning:

cooking, the act of cooking, or (prepared) food in some contexts.

In this sentence:

ta fara girki = she started cooking
Literally: she started (the) cooking.

To express “to cook” as a verb, Hausa often uses:

yin girki = to do cooking
- na yi girki = I cooked / I did some cooking.
Or dafa abinci = to cook food.

So:

girki = “cooking” (noun)
the verb phrase is built with yi or dafa etc.

Can I move the kafin clause to the beginning: Kafin uwa ta fara girki, Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move it, and the meaning stays the same:

Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu kafin uwa ta fara girki.
Kafin uwa ta fara girki, Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu.

Both mean:

Musa brought firewood to the stove before mother started cooking.

The difference is only emphasis / focus:

Starting with kafin uwa ta fara girki slightly highlights the condition or time frame first (“Before mother started cooking…”).
Starting with Musa ya kawo… focuses first on what Musa did.

Why does Musa take ya, and uwa takes ta? Is that because of gender?

Yes. The subject markers agree in person and gender:

ya = 3rd person masculine singular (“he”)
ta = 3rd person feminine singular (“she”)

So:

Musa ya kawo itace…
- Musa is grammatically masculine → ya
uwa ta fara girki…
- “mother” is grammatically feminine → ta

Some other common subject markers (perfective set) are:

na = I
ka = you (masc. sg.)
kin / ki = you (fem. sg., depends on aspect)
ya = he
ta = she
mun = we
kun = you (pl.)
sun = they

Could I say Musa ya kawo itacen zuwa murhu instead of itace? What’s the difference?

Adding -n (or -n/-r/-n depending on the word) makes the noun definite, roughly like “the” in English.

itace = wood / some wood / firewood (indefinite)
itacen = the wood / the firewood (already known or specific)

So:

Musa ya kawo itace zuwa murhu.
= Musa brought (some) firewood to the stove.
Musa ya kawo itacen zuwa murhu.
= Musa brought the firewood to the stove (the specific one we’ve been talking about).

Both are grammatically correct; you choose based on whether the wood is already specific/known.

Can I drop uwa and just say kafin ta fara girki if it’s clear who “she” is?

Yes, that’s possible in context.

If it is already clear who the female subject is (e.g. “mother” was mentioned in the previous sentence), you can say:

kafin ta fara girki = before she started cooking.

In your full sentence, including uwa:

kafin uwa ta fara girki

is more explicit and clear if “mother” hasn’t just been mentioned. Without context, kafin ta fara girki only tells us “before she started cooking,” but not who “she” is.