Da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba, saboda haka ta daina mamaki.

When he came later, he told the truth, not a lie, so she stopped being surprised.

Breakdown of Da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba, saboda haka ta daina mamaki.

• zo: to come
• ba … ba: not
• gaskiya: the truth
• faɗa: to tell
• mamaki: the surprise
• da: when
• daga baya: later
• ƙarya: the lie
• saboda haka: so
• daina: to stop

Questions & Answers about Da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba, saboda haka ta daina mamaki.

What does Da at the beginning of the sentence do? Is it the same as and?

In this sentence, Da introduces a time clause and is best translated as “when”:

• Da ya zo daga baya, ... → “When he later came, ...”

So here da is a subordinator meaning “when/after” in the past, not simply “and”.

Some notes:

• With a past event, da + perfective often gives “when/after X happened”.
• Without da, Ya zo daga baya is just “He came later.”
• With da, it links that event to what follows: “When he came later, he told the truth...”

Why do we have ya after da, as in Da ya zo daga baya? Why not just Da zo daga baya?

In Hausa, a finite verb in a normal clause needs a subject pronoun in front of it. So you say:

• Ya zo. – He came.
• Ta zo. – She came.

The da-clause still needs that subject pronoun:

• Da ya zo daga baya – When he came later...

If you said ✗ Da zo daga baya, it would be ungrammatical, because zo has no subject pronoun in front of it.

What exactly does daga baya mean? Is it just “later”?

Daga baya literally is “from later”, but as a phrase it means:

• “later, afterwards, subsequently”

So:

• Da ya zo daga baya ≈ “When he came later / when he later arrived”

You can also use daga baya on its own:

• Zan zo daga baya. – I’ll come later.

In ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba, why do we have ba ƙarya ba? Isn’t ba ... ba the normal sentence negation?

Hausa ba ... ba does two main jobs:

1. Ordinary sentence negation (with a pronoun after ba):

   • Ba ya zo ba. – He did not come.

2. Emphatic contrast / “not X (but Y)” without a pronoun inside:

   • gaskiya ba ƙarya ba – truth, not lies

In ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba:

• gaskiya – truth (object of faɗa)
• ba ƙarya ba – not lies (contrasting noun, no pronoun inside)

So this is not a full negative clause, but a contrastive phrase:
“He told the truth, not lies.”

You could similarly say:

• na sayi shinkafa ba wake ba – I bought rice, not beans.

Is faɗa gaskiya a fixed expression? How does faɗa work here?

Yes, faɗa gaskiya is a very common collocation:

• faɗa – to say / to tell
• gaskiya – truth

So ya faɗa gaskiya literally means “he said truth”, but idiomatically:

• “he told the truth”

Other common patterns with faɗa:

• Ya faɗa min labari. – He told me a story.
• Kar ka faɗa musu. – Don’t tell them.

What does saboda haka mean, and how is it different from just saboda?

• saboda on its own means “because (of)”:

  • Na tafi da wuri saboda aiki. – I left early because of work.

• saboda haka is a whole connector meaning roughly “for that reason / therefore / so”.

In the sentence:

• ... ya faɗa gaskiya ba ƙarya ba, saboda haka ta daina mamaki.
  → “... he told the truth, not lies, therefore she stopped being surprised.”

So:

• saboda = “because (of)”
• saboda haka = “because of that / for that reason / so” (often starts a result clause)

Why do we switch from ya to ta at the end (ta daina mamaki)? What does ta refer to?

In Hausa, 3rd person subject pronouns mark gender:

• ya = he / it (masc.)
• ta = she / it (fem.)

In your sentence:

• ya zo / ya faɗa gaskiya → referring to a male subject (he).
• ta daina mamaki → referring to a female subject (she).

So ta refers to “she”, the woman/girl who had been surprised. Hausa keeps this gender distinction, even when English just uses “he/she”.

What does daina mean in ta daina mamaki? How is it used?

daina means “to stop / to cease doing something”.

The usual pattern is:

• daina + verbal noun or daina + activity noun

So:

• Ta daina mamaki. – She stopped being surprised.
  (literally “she stopped surprise” – the verb yi “do” is understood: she stopped doing surprise)

Other examples:

• Na daina magana. – I stopped talking.
• Ya daina cin nama. – He stopped eating meat.
• Sun daina wasa. – They stopped playing.

What exactly does mamaki mean? And why is it used without yi here?

mamaki is a noun meaning “surprise, amazement, astonishment”.

Commonly:

• ta yi mamaki – she was surprised / she felt amazed

In ta daina mamaki, the verb yi is understood but omitted:

• Full form: ta daina yin mamaki – she stopped doing surprise
• Shortened everyday form: ta daina mamaki

Hausa often drops yi after daina when the meaning is clear:

• Mun daina zagi. (for Mun daina yin zagi.) – We stopped insulting (people).

How does the tense/aspect work in Da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya...? Is this past tense?

Yes, this is past with the perfective aspect:

• ya zo – he came (perfective: completed action)
• ya faɗa – he told/said (perfective)

With da introducing the first clause:

• Da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya...
  ≈ “When he (had) come later, he told the truth...”
  or more natural: “When he came later, he told the truth...”

So the da-clause sets a background past event, and the main clause (ya faɗa...) is another completed action in the past that follows it.

Could we say Lokacin da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya... instead of just Da ya zo daga baya?

Yes, you can:

• Lokacin da ya zo daga baya, ya faɗa gaskiya...

This is also grammatical and clear. It literally means:

• “At the time when he came later, he told the truth...”

Differences:

• Da ya zo daga baya, ... – very natural, slightly more compact.
• Lokacin da ya zo daga baya, ... – a bit more explicit/literary: “At the time when he came later...”

Both are acceptable; the short Da + perfective form is extremely common in spoken Hausa.

Why is there a comma after Da ya zo daga baya? Does Hausa always use a comma for this kind of clause?

Punctuation is partly a writing convention, but the comma here reflects the natural pause:

• Da ya zo daga baya, | ya faɗa gaskiya...

Writers usually put a comma after a clause introduced by da when it comes first:

• Da ya gama, sai ya tafi.

If the da-clause comes after the main clause, often there is no comma:

• Ya tafi da ya gama.

So the comma is not a grammatical marker in Hausa itself, but a reading aid that matches normal intonation and clause boundaries.