Learn Hardcore Hausa: A ƙauye yawanci muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi. - In the village we usually ride a bicycle to the relatives’ farm.

You can also say a cikin ƙauye (“inside the village”), which is a bit more explicit, but a ƙauye is the normal, simple way to say “in the village.”

What is the role of yawanci, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Yawanci means “usually / generally / most of the time.” It’s an adverb of frequency.

In this sentence, A ƙauye yawanci muna hawa keke…, it modifies the whole clause muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi (“we ride a bicycle to the relatives’ farm”).

Placement is flexible. Natural options include:

A ƙauye yawanci muna hawa keke… (as given)
Yawanci a ƙauye muna hawa keke…
A ƙauye muna yawanci hawa keke… (less common, but possible in speech)

The most common and clear positions are before the verb phrase:

either just after the location: A ƙauye yawanci muna…
or at the very beginning: Yawanci a ƙauye muna…

How does muna work here? Is it more like “we are” or “we (habitually) do”?

Muna is a subject+aspect form meaning roughly “we are (doing)” or “we (habitually) do.”

It comes from:

mu = we
plus the incompletive/progressive marker -na

So:

ina – I am (doing)
kana – you (sg.) are (doing)
yana / tana – he / she is (doing)
muna – we are (doing)
kuna – you (pl.) are (doing)
suna – they are (doing)

In context, muna hawa keke can mean:

habitual: “we ride a bicycle (as a habit)”
progressive: “we are riding a bicycle (right now)”

In this sentence, yawanci (“usually”) pushes the meaning toward habitual:
→ “In the village we usually ride a bicycle to the relatives’ farm.”

Why is the verb form hawa used here and not something like hau?

The basic verb is hau – “to mount / to ride (something, e.g. a bike, horse).”

Hawa is the verbal noun (often called a “masdar”) of hau. Hausa very often uses verbal nouns after ina / muna / suna, etc., to express “be doing X”:

Ina tafiya. – I am going / I usually go. (tafiyā = going, journey)
Muna aiki. – We are working / we usually work. (aiki = work)
Suna wasa. – They are playing. (wasa = play)

Similarly:

Muna hawa keke. – We (are) riding a bicycle / we usually ride a bicycle.

You may also hear muna hawan keke, where -n links the verbal noun to its object (hawan keke = “riding of a bicycle”). Both muna hawa keke and muna hawan keke are natural.

Why is keke not plural or marked with something like “a” or “the”? Does it mean “a bicycle” or “bicycles”?

Hausa does not use articles like English “a / an / the,” so keke can cover several English possibilities, depending on context:

“a bicycle”
“the bicycle”
“bicycles” (generic transport type)

In muna hawa keke, the idea is more “we go by bicycle” (as a mode of transport) than counting exact bikes.

If you really want to mark plural, Hausa has plural forms, for example:

kekuna – bicycles

Examples:

Na sayi keke. – I bought a/the bicycle.
Muna hawa keke zuwa gona. – We ride (by) bicycle to the farm.
Muna hawa kekuna biyu. – We ride two bicycles.

In your sentence, keke is generic: “we usually go by bicycle.”

What does zuwa do in this sentence? Is it like the English preposition “to”?

Yes. In this sentence zuwa functions like a preposition meaning “to / towards.”

muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi
→ “we ride a bicycle to the relatives’ farm”

Some points:

Zuwa originally comes from the verb related to zuwa / zo (“to come”), but here it behaves like a preposition.
It’s very common before nouns or noun phrases:
- zuwa makaranta – to school
- zuwa kasuwa – to the market
- zuwa gidanmu – to our house

Other ways to say “to” include ga or zuwa ga, but zuwa + place is very standard and clear in this type of sentence.

You normally would not drop it here; saying muna hawa keke gonar dangi on its own would sound more like “we ride a bicycle (of) the relatives’ farm,” which is confusing. Zuwa clearly marks direction.

What exactly does gonar dangi mean, and why does gona change to gonar?

gona = a farm, field
dangi = (one’s) extended family / clan / relatives

Gonar dangi literally means “farm-of relatives”, i.e. “the relatives’ farm / the family’s farm.”

The change from gona to gonar is a normal genitive (possessive) / construct pattern:

Feminine nouns often add -r / -ar before a following noun to show “X of Y”:
- gona → gonar dangi – farm of the relatives
- kofa → kofar gida – door of the house
- mota → motar malam – the teacher’s car

For masculine nouns you typically see -n / -in:

gida → gidan malam – the teacher’s house
littafi → littafin Musa – Musa’s book

So gonar dangi is just the standard “X of Y” construction: [farm] of [relatives].

What does dangi mean, and how is it different from words like iyali or ’yan uwa?

Dangi refers to one’s extended family, clan, or kin group – wider than just the people in your immediate household.

Common family terms:

iyali – nuclear family / household (spouse and children, people you live with)
’yan uwa – siblings / relatives (literally “children of the same parents,” but often used more broadly as “relatives”)
dangi – extended family, clan, lineage, kin group

So:

gonar dangi – the family farm of the wider clan/relatives
gidansu iyalina – the house of my immediate family
’yan uwana – my siblings / my relatives (depending on context)

In many rural or village contexts, dangi often implies the wider family group that shares land, farms, or a compound.

Why isn’t “our” expressed? In English we’d probably say “to our relatives’ farm,” but here it’s just gonar dangi.

Hausa does not always need an explicit possessive pronoun when context already makes it obvious.

In this sentence, the subject is muna (“we”), and dangi naturally tends to mean “our relatives / our clan” from the speaker’s perspective. So gonar dangi is understood as “the farm of (our) relatives.” The “our” is supplied by context.

If you want to state it explicitly, you can:

gonar danginmu – the farm of our relatives
- dangi
  - -n (linker) + mu (we/our)
gonar danginmu and gonar dangi here would usually refer to the same place; the first just spells the possession out more clearly.

It’s common in Hausa, especially with family terms, to leave out “my / our / their” when it’s obvious:

Na je gonar dangi. – I went to the family farm (of my/our relatives).
Na ga mahaifiya. – I saw (my) mother. (Often “my” is understood.)

Does muna hawa keke mean “we usually ride bikes” (habit) or “we are riding bikes now”? How does Hausa show the difference?

On its own, muna hawa keke can be either:

habitual: “we ride a bicycle / we (tend to) go by bicycle”
progressive (right now): “we are riding a bicycle”

Hausa aspect (ongoing vs habitual) is largely shown by context and adverbs:

With yawanci (“usually”) or frequent-time expressions:
- Yawanci muna hawa keke. – We usually ride a bicycle.
With yanzu (“now”), a yanzu, etc.:
- Yanzu muna hawa keke. – Right now we are riding a bicycle.

In your sentence, yawanci is present and there’s no explicit “now,” so the natural reading is habitual:

→ “In the village we usually ride a bicycle to the relatives’ farm.”

Can the word order be changed? For example, can I say Yawanci a ƙauye muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi?

Yes, the word order has some flexibility, especially for adverbs like yawanci and location phrases like a ƙauye.

All of these are acceptable and natural:

A ƙauye yawanci muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi.
Yawanci a ƙauye muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi.
A ƙauye muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi yawanci. (less common, but possible for emphasis)

The core verb phrase usually stays together:

muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi

So you normally would not split it in a strange way, like:

✗ muna hawa zuwa gonar dangi keke (unnatural)

The safest patterns for learners are:

[Place] [Adverb] [Subject-aspect] [Verb phrase]
- A ƙauye yawanci muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi.
[Adverb] [Place] [Subject-aspect] [Verb phrase]
- Yawanci a ƙauye muna hawa keke zuwa gonar dangi.

How do you pronounce ƙauye, and how is ƙ different from k in Hausa?

ƙauye is roughly pronounced like “k’a-oo-yeh”, with two syllables: ƙau–ye.

The letter ƙ is not the same as k in Hausa:

k – an ordinary voiceless “k” sound (like in English kite).
ƙ – a glottalized / implosive k; the tongue position is similar to k, but there is a sort of “sucked in” or tighter quality. It’s a distinct consonant in Hausa and can change meaning:
- kasa – ground, soil
- ƙasa – country, nation

Similarly:

kauye (with k) would be a misspelling / wrong word.
ƙauye (with ƙ) is the correct Hausa word for “village.”

In everyday learning, it’s important to pay attention to k vs ƙ in writing, because they are considered different letters and can distinguish different words.