Ma'aikaciya ta ce ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.

The female worker said the office is not opened early this month.

Breakdown of Ma'aikaciya ta ce ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.

• ba … ba: not
• da wuri: early
• a: in
• ta: she
• ofis: the office
• ce: to say
• wannan: this
• buɗe: to open
• wata: the month
• ma'aikaciya: the female worker

Questions & Answers about Ma'aikaciya ta ce ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.

What does ma'aikaciya mean, and what is the significance of the ending -ya?

Ma'aikaciya means “female worker / female employee.”

• The masculine form is ma'aikaci = (male) worker.
• The ending -ya is a common way to make a feminine human noun in Hausa.
  • malami (male teacher) → malamiya (female teacher)
  • ɗalibi (male student) → ɗalibiya (female student)

So ma'aikaciya tells you the worker is female.

If we already have ma'aikaciya, why do we also need ta? Aren’t we saying “she” twice?

In Hausa, you almost always need a subject pronoun before the verb, even when you have a full noun subject.

• Ma'aikaciya ta ce …
  literally: “(The) female worker, she said …”

The pattern is:

• [Noun subject] + [matching pronoun] + [verb]

So you cannot normally say just Ma'aikaciya ce … here. You need ta ce, because ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (“she”), agreeing with ma'aikaciya.

What is the function of ta ce in this sentence?

Ta ce means “she said.”

• ta = “she” (3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun)
• ce = “said” (perfective form of the verb “to say”)

Hausa usually does not require a word for English “that” after “say” in reported speech:

• Ta ce ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “She said (that) the office is not opened early this month.”

You can optionally add cewa (“that”) for emphasis or clarity:

• Ma'aikaciya ta ce cewa ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  (still: “The female worker said that the office is not opened early this month.”)

What does the negative pattern ba … ba mean, and why do we see ba twice?

The pattern ba … ba is the standard way to make many full negative sentences in Hausa.

In this sentence:

• ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba
  • first ba = opens the negation
  • final ba = closes the negation

You can think of it as putting the clause inside a negative bracket:

ba [ a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ] ba

In careful or standard speech, both occurrences of ba are normally present.
In fast, colloquial speech, people sometimes drop the final ba, but learners are safer keeping both.

What is the a in ba a buɗe ofis …? Is it the same as the a in a wannan watan?

No, they are two different words that just happen to look the same:

1. a in ba a buɗe ofis …

   • This a is an impersonal subject pronoun.
   • It corresponds to ana in the positive:
     • Ana buɗe ofis da wuri. = “They open the office early.” / “The office is opened early.”
     • Ba a buɗe ofis da wuri ba. = “They do not open the office early.” / “The office is not opened early.”

2. a in a wannan watan

   • This a is a preposition meaning roughly “in / at / on”.
   • a wannan watan = “in this month.”

So:

• ba a buɗe … → ba + (impersonal subject pronoun a) + verb
• a wannan watan → preposition a + time expression

Who is actually “not opening the office” in ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba?

The subject is impersonal / unspecified.

The impersonal pronoun a / ana often means:

• “people (in general)”
• “they (unspecified)”
• or functions like a passive in English (“is opened”, “is done”).

So:

• Ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  • can be understood as:
    • “They don’t open the office early this month,” or
    • “The office is not opened early this month.”

If you wanted to name the subject explicitly, you could say, for example:

• Ba su buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “They do not open the office early this month.”

What tense/aspect is expressed by ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba? Is it past, present, or future?

With the impersonal pronoun a / ana, this pattern usually expresses a general or current habit / situation, not the future:

• Ana buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan.
  = “They open the office early this month / The office is (being) opened early this month.”
• Ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “They are not opening the office early this month / The office is not opened early this month.”

To talk about the future, Hausa normally uses za a in the affirmative, and ba za a … ba in the negative:

• Ba za a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “The office will not be opened early this month.”

What does buɗe mean, and is there anything special about the letter ɗ?

Buɗe means “to open” (verb).

• In this sentence, buɗe is in a neutral verb form following the impersonal subject a:
  • ba a buɗe ofis … = “the office is not opened / they do not open the office …”

The letter ɗ represents a special Hausa sound: an implosive d.

• It is written with a small hook under the d.
• It is not exactly the same as an English d; the tongue position is similar but there is a slight inward “gulp” of air.

Learners often just pronounce it like a clear d, but it is good to be aware that it is a distinct consonant in Hausa spelling and phonology.

What exactly does da wuri mean, and how is it used?

Da wuri means “early.”

• Literally it is something like “with earliness / with (being) early,” but functionally it is just an adverb: “early.”
• In our sentence:
  • buɗe ofis da wuri = “open the office early.”

You will often see da wuri with verbs of starting/doing something:

• Sun tashi da wuri. = “They got up early.”
• Mu fara da wuri. = “Let’s start early.”

A stronger version is tun da wuri = “very early / from early on.”

What does a wannan watan mean, and why is it watan and not wata?

A wannan watan means “in this month.”

• a = preposition “in / at / on”
• wannan = “this”
• wata = “month” (basic form)
• watan = a modified form of wata used in certain structures

Hausa nouns often have a “bound” or modified form when they appear in some expressions (especially with another noun or a demonstrative). With wata (“month”), that form is watan.

You will see both patterns in real usage, but for the time expression “in this month”, a wannan watan is very common and idiomatic:

• a wannan watan = “in this month”
• a watan Janairu = “in the month of January”

Does ofis here mean “an office” or “the office,” and why is there no article?

Ofis is a loanword meaning “office.” Hausa does not have definite and indefinite articles like English “the / a / an.”

• ofis can be understood as “office / an office / the office” depending on context.
• In this sentence, context suggests “the office” (probably a known, specific office).

Hausa can mark definiteness with other tools (like -n / -r or nan), but it is not required here:

• ofishin nan = “this (particular) office”
• ofishinmu = “our office”

So ba a buɗe ofis da wuri is naturally read as “(the) office is not opened early,” with definiteness understood from the situation.

Can you restate the whole sentence in a more “active” way in Hausa, keeping the same meaning?

Yes. The original sentence uses an impersonal/passive-like construction:

• Ma'aikaciya ta ce ba a buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “The (female) worker said the office is not opened early this month.”

A more explicitly active version would name the people who open the office, for example:

• Ma'aikaciya ta ce ba su buɗe ofis da wuri a wannan watan ba.
  = “The female worker said they do not open the office early this month.”

Both are correct; the original simply leaves the doer unspecified using ba a buɗe ….