Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta ce babu damuwa, amma ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba. - Mother said there is no need for worry, but she was surprised why he did not call her on the phone.

Uwa ta ce babu damuwa, amma ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba.

Mother said there is no need for worry, but she was surprised why he did not call her on the phone.

Breakdown of Uwa ta ce babu damuwa, amma ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba.

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Questions & Answers about Uwa ta ce babu damuwa, amma ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba.

What is the role of ta in Uwa ta ce? Why do we need a pronoun after Uwa?

In Hausa, a full noun subject like Uwa (mother) is usually followed by a subject pronoun that carries the tense/aspect and agreement.

Uwa = “Mother” (a noun, feminine)
ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun in the perfective (past-like) aspect
ce = “said”

So Uwa ta ce is literally “Mother, she-said,” which in natural English is just “Mother said.”

Hausa grammar normally requires that subject pronoun (ya, ta, sun, etc.) even if there is already a noun like Uwa. The noun is more like a topic; the pronoun is the real grammatical subject marker.

Why do we see ta again in amma ta yi mamaki?

Each clause in Hausa needs its own subject pronoun.

First clause: Uwa ta ce babu damuwa – “Mother said there is no problem”
Second clause: amma ta yi mamaki… – “but she was surprised / she wondered…”

The ta in the second clause refers back to Uwa, but because this is a new clause (after amma = “but”), Hausa repeats the subject pronoun. So you get:

amma ta yi mamaki = “but she was surprised”
not “but was surprised” (the subject can’t be omitted in Hausa).

What does babu damuwa literally mean, and how is it used?

babu is an existential negative word meaning “there is no / there isn’t”.
damuwa means “worry, concern, trouble, problem.”

So literally:

babu damuwa = “there is no worry” / “no problem”

In everyday speech it’s a very common idiomatic response, roughly like:

“No problem,” “It’s fine,” “Don’t worry about it.”

You’ll also hear similar phrases like babu matsala (“no trouble/problem”).

What tense/aspect is expressed by ta ce and ta yi in this sentence?

Both ta ce (“she said”) and ta yi mamaki (“she was surprised / she wondered”) use the perfective aspect of the verb, marked by ta (for 3rd person feminine singular).

ce = perfective form of faɗi (“to say”)
yi = verb “to do, to make,” used here in the idiom yi mamaki = “be surprised”

In context, the perfective here corresponds to simple past in English:

ta ce → “she said”
ta yi mamaki → “she was surprised” / “she wondered”

How does amma work here?

amma means “but” and introduces a contrast, just like English “but”:

Uwa ta ce babu damuwa, amma ta yi mamaki…
“Mother said there was no problem, but she wondered…”

So amma links two clauses whose ideas contrast:

She says there’s no problem.
Yet she is still surprised that he didn’t call.

What does me ya sa mean, and how is it formed?

me ya sa is a very common way to say “why” (often like “how come” or “what caused it that…”).

Breakdown:

me = “what”
ya = 3rd person masculine singular perfective subject pronoun
sa = verb “to put, to cause”

Literally: “what is it that caused (it)”, but as a set expression it just means “why.”

In the sentence:

… ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba.
“She was surprised why he hadn’t called her on the phone.”

You’ll also see it written as one word: meyasa / me yasa.

Why is the negative written as bai kira ta … ba? How does this negative pattern work?

Hausa uses a split negative pattern with ba … ba around the verb phrase.

For a 3rd person masculine singular subject in perfective:

Affirmative:
ya kira = “he called”
Negative:
bai kira ba = “he didn’t call”

In our sentence you have:

bai kira ta a waya ba
- bai = ba + ya (negative + 3sg.masc perfective)
- kira = call
- ta = her (object pronoun)
- a waya = on the phone
- final ba = closing negative particle

So the whole thing means “he didn’t call her on the phone.”

General pattern (perfective):

ba + subject pronoun + verb (+ object/complements) + ba

Examples:

ba ta kira ni ba = she didn’t call me
ba su zo ba = they didn’t come

Who does bai refer to here, and what’s the difference between bai and ba ta?

bai refers to a male subject: “he”.

bai = ba + ya → negative + 3rd person masculine perfective
ba ta = ba + ta → negative + 3rd person feminine perfective

So:

bai kira ta… ba = “he did not call her…”
ba ta kira shi… ba = “she did not call him…”

In the sentence, Uwa (mother) is the one thinking, but bai refers to some man (probably her son, husband, etc.) who did not call her.

What does ta mean in bai kira ta a waya ba, and how do I know it’s “her” and not “she”?

The form ta is used both as:

Subject pronoun (3rd person feminine singular, e.g. ta ce = “she said”)
Object pronoun (3rd person feminine singular, e.g. ya gan ta = “he saw her”)

In bai kira ta a waya ba:

The subject is already carried in bai (ba + ya = “he [didn’t]”).
So the ta after kira must be the object pronoun = “her”.

Word-by-word:

bai = he did not
kira = call
ta = her
a waya = on the phone
ba = negative ending

→ “why he did not call her on the phone.”

You know it’s “her” because Hausa puts object pronouns after the verb, and because the subject is already encoded in bai.

Why is it a waya for “on the phone”? What does a mean here?

a is a very general preposition in Hausa, often translated as “in, at, on” depending on context.

waya = phone

The phrase a waya is an idiomatic way to say “on the phone / by phone.”
So:

kira ta a waya = “call her on the phone”

Other examples of a:

a gida = at home
a kasuwa = in the market
a gari = in town

You may also hear ta waya (“by phone”) in some varieties, but a waya is very common and natural.

Is me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba a direct question, or an embedded/indirect question?

In this sentence it functions as an embedded (indirect) question inside the larger clause:

… amma ta yi mamaki me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba.
“… but she wondered why he hadn’t called her on the phone.”

She is not directly asking someone; she is internally wondering.
In English you see this by the verb wonder:

“She wondered why he hadn’t called.”

If you said it as a direct question, you would typically use similar wording but with questioning intonation and maybe stand-alone:

Me ya sa bai kira ta a waya ba?
“Why didn’t he call her on the phone?”

Can Uwa here mean “Mum / my mother,” or is it just “a mother” in general?

Uwa literally means “mother.” Without any possessive marker, it’s technically just “mother” as a noun, but in context it can function like:

“(His/her) mother”
or stylistically even like “Mum” / “Mother” in narrative.

Hausa often leaves out explicit possessives when they are understood from context. So in a story, Uwa is likely a specific mother already known in the discourse, not just “some generic mother.”

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

uwar sa = his mother
uwar ta = her mother
uwata = my mother

Could the object pronoun ta be written together with the verb, like kira ta → kirata?

In practice, you will see both:

kira ta
kirata

In careful, learner-friendly writing, it’s often separated as kira ta to make the pieces clear:

kira = call (verb/noun)
ta = her (object pronoun)

In more informal or rapid writing, the pronoun is frequently attached to the verb:

kirata = kìra + ta → “call-her”

Both are understood; it’s mostly a matter of orthographic style and how much the writer wants to make the structure transparent for the reader.