Learn Hardcore Hausa: Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a gida, uwa tana ba mu shawara ko mafita. - Whenever we have a problem at home, mother gives us advice or a solution.

Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a gida, uwa tana ba mu shawara ko mafita.

Whenever we have a problem at home, mother gives us advice or a solution.

Breakdown of Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a gida, uwa tana ba mu shawara ko mafita.

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Questions & Answers about Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a gida, uwa tana ba mu shawara ko mafita.

What exactly does duk lokacin da mean, and how is it used? Is it like whenever in English?

Duk lokacin da literally means “every time that / any time that” and is very close to English “whenever”.

duk = every / all
lokacin = the time
da = that / when (a linker introducing a clause)

So duk lokacin da muka sami matsala… = “every time that we get into trouble…” → “whenever we have a problem…”

You can use duk lokacin da at the start of a sentence to introduce a repeated / habitual situation, just like whenever in English:

Duk lokacin da na gaji, ina kwanciya. – Whenever I’m tired, I lie down.

Why is it muka sami and not mun sami? What is the role of muka here?

Both muka and mun carry the idea of “we (did something)”, but they are used in different syntactic environments.

mun sami = independent perfect:
- Mun sami matsala. – We had a problem.
muka sami = relative / focused perfect (often after something comes in front of the verb, like a time phrase, question word, or a relative linker such as da).
Here, duk lokacin da introduces a clause, so Hausa switches to the relative form:
Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala…
Literally: “Every time that we-(rel.) found a problem…”

You’ll frequently see -k- in these “relative” forms:

na → nika/inka/aka, mu → muka, ku → kuka, etc., depending on person.

So:

mun sami – “we found / we have found” (stand‑alone clause)
muka sami – “(when / that) we found” (inside a relative or time clause, as here)

What tense/aspect is muka sami? Does it mean “we got” (past) or “we get” (habitual)?

Formally, muka sami is a perfect / completed form: “we got / we found / we experienced a problem.”

However, because it’s inside the time clause duk lokacin da (“whenever / every time that”), the overall meaning becomes habitual:

Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala…
Literally: “Every time that we have gotten a problem…”
Natural English: “Whenever we have a problem / whenever we get in trouble…”

So the verb form itself is perfect, but the construction with duk lokacin da gives it a repeated, timeless feel – similar to English using a present tense for habitual truths: “Whenever we get a problem, …”

What does matsala mean exactly? Is it countable, and how do you make it plural?

matsala means “problem, trouble, difficulty.” It is usually countable.

Singular: matsala – a problem
Plural: matsaloli – problems

Examples:

Muna da matsala. – We have a problem.
Muna da matsaloli da yawa. – We have many problems.

In this sentence, matsala is singular and indefinite, understood as “a problem / some trouble.”

Why is it a gida and not just gida? What does the preposition a do?

a is a very common preposition meaning roughly “in, at, on” depending on context.

gida = house / home
a gida = “at home / in the house”

So matsala a gida = “a problem at home”.

Sometimes gida can stand alone and still mean “home” in a loose sense (especially in set phrases), but a gida is the normal way to say “at home / in the home” in a sentence like this.

Compare:

Ina gida. – I’m at home. (no a, common idiomatic form)
Ina a gida. – Also heard, more explicitly “I am at home.”

In your sentence, a gida is the natural phrasing.

Does uwa here mean “our mother” or just “a mother / the mother”? Why is there no word for “our”?

Literally, uwa = “mother” (no possessive explicitly shown).

However, Hausa very often relies on context to give the sense of “my/our/etc.” especially with close kinship terms (mother, father, etc.).

In this context:

Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a gida, uwa tana ba mu shawara…

The situation is clearly about our own household, so uwa is naturally understood as “our mother.”

If you wanted to make “our mother” fully explicit, you could say:

Uwarmu tana ba mu shawara… – Our mother gives us advice…

But it’s normal and idiomatic to just say uwa when the relationship is obvious, especially in family / home contexts.

What is tana doing here? Is it a verb meaning “is”? Is this a progressive tense?

tana is a combination of:

ta = she (3rd person feminine subject pronoun)
na = continuous/progressive marker

So tana introduces a continuous / progressive / habitual action: “she is doing / she does (habitually).”

In this sentence:

uwa tana ba mu shawara… = “mother is giving us advice / mother gives us advice (habitually).”

Because the whole sentence describes something that happens every time there’s a problem, English uses a simple present (“gives us advice”), while Hausa uses this ta + na = tana pattern to express an ongoing / repeated action.

What does the verb ba mean here in tana ba mu shawara? Is it related to the negative marker ba … ba?

In this sentence, ba is the verb “to give.”

tana ba mu shawara
- tana – she is (doing)
- ba – giving
- mu – to us
- shawara – advice

So: “she gives us advice.”

This ba (to give) is a completely different word from the negative marker ba … ba, even though they’re spelled the same:

Ba ta ba mu shawara ba. – She did not give us advice.
- First ba = negative particle
- ba mu = “give us” (same ba as in your sentence)
- final ba = closing negative particle

So:

ba (verb) = give
ba … ba (particles) = not

What is mu doing after ba in tana ba mu shawara? Why not before or after the whole verb phrase?

mu here is the object pronoun “us.”

In Hausa, short object pronouns often come immediately after the verb (or verb-like element):

ya ba ni – he gave me
ya ba shi – he gave him
ta ba mu – she gave us

So:

tana ba mu shawara
- ba – give
- mu – us
- shawara – advice

Literal order: “she is giving us advice.”

You don’t say “mu tana ba shawara” or “tana ba shawara mu” in this structure; the pronoun mu belongs right after ba.

What is the difference between shawara and mafita? Why are both used with ko?

Both are nouns, but they focus on different aspects:

shawara = advice, counsel, guidance
mafita = solution, way out, resolution (literally “exit / way out”)

In the sentence:

uwa tana ba mu shawara ko mafita.
→ “mother gives us advice or a solution.”

This suggests:

Sometimes she gives guidance / recommendations (shawara).
Sometimes she gives an actual concrete way to solve the problem (mafita).

ko here means “or” in the usual inclusive sense, just like English “or”:

ruwa ko lemo – water or soda
shawara ko mafita – advice or a solution

Can the sentence use na instead of tana, like uwa na ba mu shawara? Would that be correct?

Yes, uwa na ba mu shawara is also grammatically correct and commonly used in spoken Hausa.

uwa tana ba mu shawara…
uwa na ba mu shawara…

Both basically mean “mother gives us advice / is giving us advice.”

Differences:

tana (ta + na) explicitly marks third-person feminine (she).
na on its own can behave as a more general continuous marker directly after a noun subject.

In careful or formal speech, uwa tana ba mu shawara makes the subject‑verb agreement very clear. In everyday speech, uwa na ba mu shawara is very natural and understood the same way in this context.

How would I say “Whenever we have problems at school, our mother gives us advice” based on this sentence?

You can adapt the original structure like this:

Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a makaranta, uwa tana ba mu shawara.

Breakdown:

duk lokacin da – whenever / every time that
muka sami matsala – we have a problem
a makaranta – at school
uwa tana ba mu shawara – mother gives us advice

If you want to be explicit with “our mother”:

Duk lokacin da muka sami matsala a makaranta, uwarmu tana ba mu shawara.