Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa tana sa zani a gida. - Mother wears a wrapper at home.

Uwa is a full noun meaning mother.
tana is the subject pronoun + tense/aspect marker meaning roughly “she (is)” for ongoing or general present actions.

Hausa verbs normally go with a subject pronoun that carries tense/aspect. When you name the subject with a noun (like Uwa, Musa, yara), you still repeat it with the pronoun:

Uwa tana sa zani a gida. – Mother is wearing a wrapper at home.
Musa yana cin abinci. – Musa is eating.
Yara suna wasa. – The children are playing.

You can drop the noun if the person is already clear from context:

Tana sa zani a gida. – She is wearing a wrapper at home.

…but you cannot drop the pronoun and say *Uwa sa zani a gida in standard Hausa. The pattern [Noun] + [pronoun+aspect] + verb is just how the language works.

What exactly does tana mean, and how is it formed?

tana is the form you use for “she is / she does” in the present/progressive.

You can think of it as:

ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (she)
na = marker often used for present / ongoing / general actions

These fuse into tana.

Other persons work in a similar way:

Ina sa zani a gida. – I am wearing / I wear a wrapper at home.
Kana sa zani a gida. – You (m.sg.) are wearing / you wear…
Kina sa zani a gida. – You (f.sg.) are wearing / you wear…
Yana sa zani a gida. – He is wearing / he wears…
Tana sa zani a gida. – She is wearing / she wears…
Muna sa zani a gida. – We are wearing / we wear…
Kuna sa zani a gida. – You (pl.) are wearing / you wear…
Suna sa zani a gida. – They are wearing / they wear…

So tana is one member of this set, specifically for “she”.

Does Uwa tana sa zani a gida mean “Mother is wearing…” right now, or “Mother wears…” in general?

On its own, it can mean either, depending on context.

If you are describing what is happening right now, it corresponds to English present continuous:
- (Yanzu) Uwa tana sa zani a gida.
  Now, Mother is putting on / wearing a wrapper at home.
If you are talking about a general habit, it can also be understood as “Mother wears…”:
- Kowace rana, Uwa tana sa zani a gida.
  Every day, Mother wears a wrapper at home.

Hausa doesn’t always separate “is doing” and “does (usually)” as sharply as English. Time expressions like yanzu (now), kowace rana (every day), sau da yawa (often), etc., usually make the intended meaning clear.

What does sa mean here? Is it always about clothes?

In this sentence sa means “to put on / wear (clothing or an accessory)”.

Examples with clothes:

sa zani – wear a wrapper
sa riga – wear a shirt/dress/top
sa hula – wear a cap
sa takalmi – wear shoes

But sa is a very general verb in Hausa and has other uses too:

sa littafi a tebur – put a book on the table
sa shi ya yi hakan – make him do that

So here, from the context (zani, a gida, and the known meaning of the whole sentence), we interpret sa as “to put on / wear”, not just any kind of “put” or “cause”.

What exactly is zani? Is it just any skirt?

zani is a specific type of garment:

It is a wrapper – a long rectangular piece of cloth wrapped around the waist and usually reaching the ankles.
It is not a sewn/plated skirt; it is usually just tied or tucked in, not buttoned or zipped.
It is traditionally worn by women in Hausa culture, though in some contexts men also use wrappers.

It’s different from:

siketi – a (Western-style) skirt (borrowed from English skirt)
wando – trousers
riga – general word for an upper garment (shirt, gown, dress, etc.)

So translating zani as “wrapper” or “wrap skirt” is more accurate than just “skirt”.

Why isn’t there a word for “a” or “the” before zani or gida?

Hausa has no separate words for “a / an / the”. There are no definite or indefinite articles like in English.

Definiteness and specificity are usually shown by:

Context
- Uwa tana sa zani a gida.
  Depending on context, this could be understood as:
  - Mother is wearing *a wrapper at home*,
  - Mother is wearing *the wrapper at home*, or even
  - Mother is wearing *her wrapper at home.*
Possessive forms
- zanin ta – her wrapper
- zanin nan – this wrapper
- gidanmu – our house
- gidan nan – this house
Demonstratives / specific markers
- zanin nan – this (particular) wrapper
- gidan nan – this (particular) house

So in Uwa tana sa zani a gida, English has to choose a/the/her based on the situation, but Hausa just uses zani and gida without articles.

What does a gida literally mean? Is it “at home” or “in the house”?

Literally:

a = a preposition meaning at / in / on (location)
gida = house / home

Together, a gida is usually translated as “at home” or “in the house”, depending on context:

Ina a gida. – I am at home / in the house.
Yara suna wasa a gida. – The children are playing at home / inside the house.

In Uwa tana sa zani a gida, a gida simply tells us where she is wearing the wrapper – at home / in the house.

Can I move a gida to another place in the sentence, for example to the beginning?

Yes. The neutral word order is:

Subject – (pronoun+aspect) – verb – object – place/time
Uwa tana sa zani a gida.

But you can move a gida for emphasis or style, especially in speech:

A gida, Uwa tana sa zani. – At home, Mother wears a wrapper. (emphasis on at home)
Uwa, a gida take sa zani. – more emphatic/focused version (using take), sounding like It’s at home that Mother wears a wrapper.

For a learner, the safest default is to keep a gida at the end as in the original sentence. The other orders are more about emphasis than basic grammar.

How would this sentence change with different subjects like “I”, “you”, “they”?

You change the subject pronoun+aspect part (the tana) to match the new subject. Here is a mini-table, keeping the rest of the sentence the same:

Ni (I):
Ina sa zani a gida. – I am wearing / I wear a wrapper at home.
Kai (you, masculine singular):
Kana sa zani a gida. – You (m.sg.) are wearing / you wear a wrapper at home.
Ke (you, feminine singular):
Kina sa zani a gida. – You (f.sg.) are wearing / you wear a wrapper at home.
Shi / a man’s name (he):
Yana sa zani a gida. – He is wearing / he wears a wrapper at home.
Ita / Uwa (she):
Tana sa zani a gida. – She is wearing / she wears a wrapper at home.
Mu (we):
Muna sa zani a gida. – We are wearing / we wear wrappers at home.
Ku (you plural):
Kuna sa zani a gida. – You (pl.) are wearing / you wear wrappers at home.
Su (they):
Suna sa zani a gida. – They are wearing / they wear wrappers at home.

For a full noun subject like Uwa, you typically keep the noun plus the matching pronoun:

Uwa tana sa zani a gida.
Yara suna sa zani a gida. – The children wear wrappers at home.

How do you say “Mother is not wearing a wrapper at home” in Hausa?

You use the ba … ba negation pattern and change tana to ta:

Uwa ba ta sa zani a gida ba.

This can be understood as either:

Mother does not wear a wrapper at home (in general).
Mother is not wearing a wrapper at home (in this situation).

Structure:

ba
- ta (she) + sa (wear) + zani a gida
  - ba

Note that in the negative, Hausa usually drops the “na” part of tana:

Positive: Uwa tana sa zani a gida.
Negative: Uwa ba ta sa zani a gida ba.

In this sentence, does Uwa mean “a mother”, “the mother”, or “my mother”? How would I say “my mother” explicitly?

On its own, uwa just means “mother” (a common noun). In real use, context usually tells you:

It might refer to my/our mother in a family context.
It could mean a (certain) mother if you’re telling a story.
It could be the mother if previously mentioned.

To say “my mother” explicitly, you normally use a possessive form:

uwata – my mother
- Uwata tana sa zani a gida. – My mother is wearing a wrapper at home.

Other possessives (for reference):

uwarka / uwarki – your mother (m./f. sg.)
uwarsa / uwarta – his/her mother
uwar mu – our mother
uwar ku – your (pl.) mother
uwarsu – their mother

So Uwa tana sa zani a gida could very naturally be understood as “(My) mother is wearing a wrapper at home”, but Uwata makes the “my” explicit.