Questions & Answers about Don Allah ka daina kuka.
Broken down word by word:
- Don – short form of domin: for, for the sake of, because of
- Allah – God
- Don Allah together – literally for God’s sake, used as please
- ka – you (2nd person singular, masculine), subject pronoun used in this kind of command/jussive
- daina – stop, quit, give up (doing something)
- kuka – crying, weeping, sobbing (a verbal noun meaning crying)
So the literal sense is: For God’s sake, you stop crying, which corresponds in natural English to Please stop crying.
Not exactly, but it’s the closest equivalent in many situations.
- Literal meaning: for God’s sake / because of God
- Typical use: softening a request, like please
- Emotional tone: depending on voice and context, it can sound:
- gentle and polite: Please…
- urgent or exasperated: For God’s sake, stop crying!
So Don Allah covers both polite please and stronger for God’s sake, depending on how it’s said.
The part that changes is the pronoun:
To a man (your original sentence):
Don Allah ka daina kuka. – Please (you, male) stop crying.To a woman:
Don Allah ki daina kuka. – Please (you, female) stop crying.
(ki = feminine singular you)To more than one person (any gender):
Don Allah ku daina kuka. – Please (you all) stop crying.
(ku = plural you)For politeness to one older/respected person, many speakers also use ku:
Don Allah ku daina kuka. – Please stop crying (sir/ma).
ka is the 2nd person masculine singular subject pronoun in a jussive/imperative-like construction. It marks who should do the action and gives a “you should / please do X” sense.
With ka:
Don Allah ka daina kuka.
Roughly: Please, (you) stop crying.Without ka:
Don Allah daina kuka.
Also means Please stop crying, and is perfectly correct.
Differences are subtle:
- ka daina – slightly more sentence-like and explicit about you
- daina – more like a bare imperative stop, a bit more direct
Both are very common in speech.
Yes. daina is the normal everyday verb for stop / quit / give up an ongoing action, usually followed by a verbal noun:
- daina kuka – stop crying
- daina magana – stop talking
- daina dariya – stop laughing
- Na daina shan taba. – I’ve stopped smoking.
Other “stop” verbs exist, but are used differently:
- tsaya – to stop (moving), to stand still
- Motar ta tsaya. – The car stopped.
- dakatar (da) – to stop someone or something, to prevent
- Sun dakatar da shi. – They stopped him.
For “Stop crying / Stop doing X”, daina + [verbal noun] is the standard pattern.
Yes, you can say both:
- Don Allah ka daina kuka.
- Don Allah ka daina yin kuka.
They mean essentially the same thing: Please stop crying.
Details:
- kuka – verbal noun crying
- yin kuka – literally the doing of crying (verb yi = do/make, yin = its verbal noun)
In this particular phrase, daina kuka is more common and a bit shorter. daina yin kuka is also correct but sounds slightly more formal or explicit; the meaning doesn’t really change.
Yes, kuka is polysemous; it has several meanings depending on context:
crying, weeping, sobbing – as in your sentence
- Yaro yana kuka. – The child is crying.
a cry / wail / shout
- Na ji kukansu. – I heard their cries.
baobab tree (and the powdered leaves used in soup)
- Itacen kuka. – The baobab tree.
- Miyar kuka. – Baobab-leaf soup.
In ka daina kuka, the crying meaning is the only one that makes sense. Context disambiguates it.
The sentence you have is Stop crying (the person is already crying):
- Ka daina kuka. – Stop crying.
For Don’t cry (telling someone not to start or not to do it at all), Hausa usually uses kada or kar plus yi + verbal noun:
To a man:
- Kada ka yi kuka. – Don’t cry.
- Kar ka yi kuka. – Don’t cry. (very common spoken form)
To a woman:
- Kada ki yi kuka. / Kar ki yi kuka.
To several people:
- Kada ku yi kuka. / Kar ku yi kuka.
So:
- Ka daina kuka. – Stop crying (you’re already crying).
- Kada ka yi kuka. – Don’t cry (don’t start / don’t do it).
Yes. Don Allah is flexible in position, like English please.
Common patterns:
At the beginning (very common):
- Don Allah ka daina kuka. – Please stop crying.
At the end:
- Ka daina kuka, don Allah. – Stop crying, please / for God’s sake.
Sometimes in the middle:
- Ka, don Allah, daina kuka. – (spoken with pauses; less common in writing)
Meaning doesn’t really change; word order mainly affects emphasis and rhythm.
It depends on the tone of voice:
Calm, gentle voice:
- Sounds like a caring Please stop crying, comforting a child or friend.
Worried or urgent voice:
- Sounds like Please, you have to stop crying now, urgent but still caring.
Irritated or exasperated voice:
- Can feel like For God’s sake, stop crying!
Linguistically it’s polite, but emotionally it can range from soft and soothing to quite intense, depending on how it’s spoken.
It’s acceptable in most everyday contexts, both informal and semi-formal:
- Parent to child
- Teacher to student
- Friends, relatives
- Even service interactions: Don Allah ku jira kadan. – Please wait a moment.
In very formal writing (official letters, formal speeches), you might see less direct appeals to Allah, and structures like:
- Da fatan za ka daina kuka. – I hope you will stop crying.
- Ina rokon ka ka daina kuka. – I request that you stop crying.
But in normal spoken Hausa, Don Allah ka/ki/ku daina kuka is natural and not considered slang.
Possible natural responses include:
Agreeing / reassuring:
- To, na daina. – Okay, I’ve stopped.
- Na daina kuka. – I’ve stopped crying.
Apologizing:
- Yi hakuri. – Sorry / Forgive me.
- Yi hakuri, ban ji daɗi ba. – Sorry, I’m not feeling well / I’m upset.
Explaining why you’re crying:
- Ina kuka ne saboda… – I’m crying because…
Grammatically, note na daina = I have stopped, using na as the 1st person singular subject pronoun in the completive aspect.