Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

After the fridge was repaired, mother put cold water inside it.

Breakdown of Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

• ruwa: the water
• uwa: the mother
• bayan: after
• sa: to put
• mai sanyi: cold
• gyara: to repair
• firji: the fridge
• a ciki: inside

Questions & Answers about Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

What does an gyara mean in Bayan an gyara firji, and why is there no subject like “they” or “someone”?

An gyara is a very common Hausa pattern where the doer of the action is left unspecified.

• gyara = to fix/repair.
• an = completive aspect with an unspecified subject (often explained as a kind of “impersonal passive”).

So an gyara firji can be understood as:

• “the fridge was repaired”
• “they repaired the fridge”
• “someone has repaired the fridge”

The point is that who did it is not important, only that the action is finished. This pattern is especially common after time words like bayan (after), kafin (before), da (when), etc.:

• Bayan an gama aiki… – After the work has been finished…
• Da an yi sallah… – When the prayer is done…

So Bayan an gyara firji = “After the fridge was repaired / after it had been repaired.”

Could I say Bayan sun gyara firji instead of Bayan an gyara firji? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say Bayan sun gyara firji. It’s grammatically correct, but the nuance is a bit different:

• Bayan an gyara firji

  • Focus: the fridge is repaired; the doer is not mentioned or not important.
  • Natural when you don’t care who did the fixing.

• Bayan sun gyara firji

  • sun = “they have” (3rd person plural perfective).
  • Focus: they repaired the fridge.
  • Use this when you want to highlight the people who did it (e.g. “the technicians,” “my brothers,” etc., already known from context).

So both are valid; an gyara feels more neutral/impersonal.

How should I understand firji here? Is it “a fridge” or “the fridge”? Hausa doesn’t seem to use “the.”

Hausa has no separate word for “the” like English. Nouns are usually interpreted as definite or indefinite from context:

• firji can mean “a fridge” or “the fridge”, depending on what makes sense.

In a sentence like:

• Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

we naturally understand firji as “the fridge” (some specific fridge that was being worked on).

If you really want to emphasize a specific, known fridge, you can add ɗin/din or nan:

• an gyara firjin ɗin – that particular fridge (we’ve been talking about)
• an gyara firjin nan – this fridge here

But simply firji is enough and perfectly normal.

Why is it uwa ta sa and not something like mama ta sa or mahaifiya ta sa? Do all of these mean “mother”?

All three can refer to a “mother,” but they differ in tone and usage:

• uwa

  • Basic, core word for “mother.”
  • Can sound a bit more general or slightly more formal/neutral.
  • Also appears in many fixed phrases: uwar gida (the woman of the house), uwa uba (lit. “mother and father,” meaning “parents,” or used emphatically).

• mama

  • Very common, casual, and affectionate.
  • Similar to “mum/mom.”
  • Often what children actually call their mother.

• mahaifiya

  • More formal/literary; literally “female parent.”
  • Common in official or written contexts, or when contrasting mother/father:
    
    • mahaifi (father) / mahaifiya (mother).

In this sentence uwa is a neutral way to say “(the) mother.” You could also say:

• Mama ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki. – more informal.
• Mahaifiya ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki. – more formal.

What exactly does sa mean in uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki? Why “sa water” instead of a verb like “pour”?

sa is a very common verb meaning “to put, place, insert, wear, add, cause.” It’s broad and used in many contexts:

• ta sa takalmi – she put on shoes
• ka sa salt a miya – put salt in the soup
• sun sa wuta – they lit a fire / switched on electricity

In ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki, the sense is “she put cold water inside (it).”

For water specifically, there’s also:

• zuba – to pour (a liquid)

So you might also hear:

• uwa ta zuba ruwa mai sanyi a ciki

Both are acceptable. sa is more general “put (in)”, and zuba emphasizes the act of pouring. In everyday speech, sa ruwa a firji (“put water in the fridge”) is very natural.

How does ruwa mai sanyi work grammatically? Why mai sanyi and not just ruwa sanyi?

Hausa often turns a noun into an adjective using mai + noun, literally “one that has X.”

• mai sanyi = “one that has cold(ness)” = “cold”
• ruwa mai sanyi = “water that has cold(ness)” = “cold water”

Other examples:

• mutum mai hankali – a sensible person (person with sense)
• gida mai tsabta – a clean house (house with cleanliness)
• mota mai sauri – a fast car (car with speed)

You can’t just say *ruwa sanyi as a simple noun + adjective the way you say “cold water” in English. You usually need:

• ruwa mai sanyi – water that has cold
• ruwan sanyi – cold water (literally “water of coldness”)

So mai is a key way to create adjective-like meanings from nouns.

What’s the difference between ruwa mai sanyi and ruwan sanyi? Do they both mean “cold water”?

Both ruwa mai sanyi and ruwan sanyi can mean “cold water.” They’re very close in meaning, but the structures are slightly different:

• ruwa mai sanyi

  • Lit. “water that has coldness.”
  • Uses mai + noun as an adjective (“having cold”).

• ruwan sanyi

  • Lit. “water of cold(ness).”
  • ruwa
    • genitive suffix -n
      • sanyi.
  • Noun–noun (possessive–like) structure: “cold’s water.”

In practice:

• Ina son ruwan sanyi. – I like cold water.
• Ka kawo min ruwa mai sanyi. – Bring me (some) cold water.

They’re largely interchangeable here. Some speakers might feel ruwa mai sanyi sounds a bit more descriptive, but both are normal and correct.

Why is it just a ciki and not a cikin firji or a cikinsa? Doesn’t “inside” need an object?

ciki means “inside, interior, inside part.” The preposition a means “in/at.”

• a ciki = “inside (it/there)”

Because the fridge has just been mentioned, it’s obvious that “inside” refers to the fridge. Hausa often leaves the object implicit when it’s clear from context. So:

• ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki – she put cold water inside (it).

If you want to be more explicit, you can say:

• ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a cikin firji – inside the fridge
• ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a cikinsa – inside it (using the pronoun -nsa, “its”)

But in normal conversation, a ciki alone is perfectly natural and not ambiguous here.

Can I move the bayan-clause to the end, like in English “The mother put cold water in it after the fridge was repaired”?

Yes. Hausa word order is fairly flexible for time clauses. Both of these are correct:

1. Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.
2. Uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki bayan an gyara firji.

They mean the same thing. Putting Bayan an gyara firji at the beginning is very common, but placing it at the end is also fine. In writing, a comma after the first clause is optional:

• Bayan an gyara firji uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki. (comma often omitted)

Does an gyara always mean a past action, like “had been repaired,” or can it also refer to the future?

an gyara itself just means “has been repaired / was repaired” in the completive aspect (the action is finished).

The time (past vs. future) is often determined by the rest of the sentence, especially with words like bayan:

• Bayan an gyara firji, uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

  • Both clauses are in the past; “After the fridge was repaired, the mother put cold water in it.”

• Bayan an gyara firji, za mu sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki.

  • First clause = completed before some future point (“after it has been repaired”),
  • Second clause uses za mu sa = we will put (future).
  • Meaning: “After the fridge has been repaired, we will put cold water in it.”

So an gyara marks a completed action relative to another time, not “past tense” in a strict English sense. The combination with things like za (future marker) and time words (bayan, kafin, etc.) tells you whether it’s about past, present, or future.

Why is it ta sa and not ya sa? How does gender agreement work here?

Hausa verbs agree with the subject in person, number, and gender (for 3rd person singular).

• ta = 3rd person singular feminine perfective (“she did”)
• ya = 3rd person singular masculine perfective (“he did / it (masc.) did”)

Since uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine, we must use ta:

• uwa ta sa – the mother put
• baba ya sa – the father put

So:

• Uwa ta sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki. – correct
• *Uwa ya sa ruwa mai sanyi a ciki. – wrong, gender mismatch.