Learn Hardcore Hausa: Likita ya ce kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji lokacin barci. - The doctor said we should not put a heavy thing on the chest while sleeping.

Here ya = “he” (3rd person masculine singular). It doesn’t add new meaning; it is required by the grammar to mark person, number, gender, and tense/aspect.

If the subject were plural, you would change the pronoun:

Likita ya ce … – The doctor said …
Likitoci sun ce … – The doctors said … (plural subject, plural pronoun sun)

What exactly does ce mean in ya ce? Is it always “said”?

Yes, ce (sometimes written faɗi in other forms) is the main verb “to say”.

ya ce – he said
ta ce – she said
sun ce – they said

In this sentence:

Likita ya ce … = “The doctor said …”

The verb ce is in the perfective aspect (completed action) here, marked by the subject pronoun ya in perfective position.

What does kar mean in kar mu sa? How does it make the sentence negative?

Kar is a special negative word used for prohibitions / negative commands. The pattern is:

kar + subject pronoun + verb

So:

kar mu sa … – we should not put … / let’s not put …
kar ka sa … – don’t (you, m.sg) put …
kar ki sa … – don’t (you, f.sg) put …
kar su sa … – they should not put …

In the sentence:

Likita ya ce kar mu sa …
= The doctor said (that) we should not put …

So kar is what turns it into “should not / don’t”.

I’ve also seen kada. Why is it kar mu sa here and not kada mu sa?

Both kar and kada are used for negative commands / prohibitions. Roughly:

kada is a bit more formal / careful speech.
kar is very common in everyday spoken Hausa and in many written texts too.

You could say:

Likita ya ce kada mu sa abu mai nauyi …
Likita ya ce kar mu sa abu mai nauyi …

They mean the same thing here: The doctor said we should not put anything heavy …

What does the verb sa mean here? I thought sa was “to wear (clothes)”.

Sa does mean “to wear”, but its core meaning is broader: “to put / to put on”.

So it can be:

sa kaya – to wear clothes / put on clothes
sa zobe – to wear a ring / put on a ring
sa takalmi – to wear shoes / put on shoes
sa abu a kan tebur – to put something on the table

In kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji, sa just means “put”:

kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji
= we should not put a heavy thing on the chest

How does abu mai nauyi work? Why not just a word for “heavy thing”?

Hausa often builds descriptive phrases using mai (literally “having / possessing”) plus a noun.

abu – thing / something
nauyi – weight
mai – having / possessing

So:

abu mai nauyi
literally: a thing that has weight
natural meaning: a heavy thing / something heavy

Other examples:

motar mai sauri – a fast car (car that has speed)
mutum mai ƙarfi – a strong person (person that has strength)

You could add wani (“a/one”) if you wanted to stress “some”:

kar mu sa wani abu mai nauyi … – we should not put any heavy thing …

What exactly is a kan kirji? Is there a difference between a kan and akan?

a kan is a prepositional phrase:

a – in/at/on (general locative preposition)
kan – top / surface

Together: a kan = “on (the surface of)”.

a kan kirji – on the chest
a kan tebur – on the table

In writing, you will see both a kan (two words) and akan (one word). The meaning is the same; it’s mostly an orthographic choice. Many writers prefer a kan to keep the components visible.

So:

abu mai nauyi a kan kirji
= a heavy thing on the chest

What does lokacin barci literally mean? Why does it mean “when sleeping”?

Literally:

lokaci – time
barci – sleep (noun)

Linked together with the genitive -n:

lokacin barci – time of sleep / sleeping time

By extension, it means:

when (someone is) sleeping
while sleeping
at bedtime / during sleep

A longer version would be:

lokacin da muke barci – the time when we sleep

But lokacin barci is shorter and very natural in everyday speech.

How would this change if the doctor was female? Do we just change ya to ta?

Yes. The subject pronoun changes to mark feminine gender:

Likita ya ce … – The (male) doctor said …
Likita ta ce … – The (female) doctor said …

The rest of the sentence stays the same:

Likita ta ce kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji lokacin barci.
= The (female) doctor said we should not put anything heavy on the chest while sleeping.

In English we might say “The doctor told us not to put…”. How do you say “told us” in Hausa here?

You can make the “us” explicit using gaya or ce with an indirect object:

Using gaya (to tell, inform):

Likita ya gaya mana kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji lokacin barci.
= The doctor told us not to put anything heavy on the chest while sleeping.

Using ce with an object pronoun:

Likita ya ce mana kar mu sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirji lokacin barci.
= The doctor said to us that we should not put …

mana = “to us / for us” (indirect object).

How would I say “The doctor said I should not put anything heavy on my chest when I sleep”?

You change the person after kar to first person singular:

mu (we) → in or na (I), depending on dialect/register.

The most common pattern in many varieties is:

Likita ya ce kar in sa abu mai nauyi a kan kirjina lokacin barci.

Breakdown:

kar in sa – that I should not put
kirjina – my chest (kirji
- -na “my”)

So the full meaning:
The doctor said that I should not put anything heavy on my chest when I sleep.