Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa tana sa miya a cikin kwano kafin ta kawo mana a kan tebur. - Mother puts the soup into a bowl before she brings it to us on the table.

Uwa – mother
tana – she is (3rd person feminine subject ta
- progressive marker na)
sa – to put / to place (also “to wear” in other contexts)
miya – soup / stew (thick sauce served with staples)
a cikin kwano – in a bowl
- a – in/at
- cikin – inside (of)
- kwano – bowl
kafin – before
ta – she (3rd person feminine subject pronoun)
kawo – bring
mana – to us / for us (indirect object pronoun “us”)
a kan tebur – on the table
- a kan – on (on top of)
- tebur – table

So structurally:
Mother she-is putting soup in (the) bowl before she brings (it) to-us on (the) table.

Why is it tana sa and not just ta sa?

Ta sa and tana sa show different aspects:

ta sa miya – she put/has put the soup (completed action, simple perfective)
tana sa miya – she is putting the soup / she puts the soup (ongoing or general/habitual action, progressive)

tana is formed from:

ta – she (3sg feminine subject pronoun)
na – progressive marker

So tana sa miya focuses on the action as in progress (or as a usual routine), which matches something like “Mother is putting soup in the bowl…”

Why is the feminine pronoun ta used? Could it be ya instead?

The pronoun agrees with the grammatical and natural gender:

Uwa means “mother”, which is female.
Hausa uses:
- ya / shi for masculine 3rd person singular
- ta / ita for feminine 3rd person singular

So:

Uwa tana sa miya… – “Mother, she is putting the soup…”
If the subject were Baba (father), you would say:
- Baba yana sa miya… – “Father is putting the soup…”

Using ya or yana with Uwa would sound wrong to native speakers because it mismatches the obvious female gender of “mother”.

Why do we have ta again in kafin ta kawo mana if we already know it’s “mother”?

In Hausa, each finite clause normally has its own subject pronoun, even if the subject has already been mentioned:

Main clause: Uwa tana sa miya…
– subject is Uwa, with pronoun ta inside tana.
Subordinate clause: kafin ta kawo mana…
– a new clause introduced by kafin (“before”), so it takes its own subject pronoun ta.

English can say:
“Mother is putting soup in the bowl before bringing it to us…” (no repeated “she”)
Hausa prefers:
Uwa tana sa miya… kafin ta kawo mana… (repeat the subject pronoun in the second clause).

You could drop Uwa in context and just say:

Tana sa miya a cikin kwano kafin ta kawo mana a kan tebur.
But you still keep ta in the second clause.

What exactly does sa mean here, and is it the same verb used for “to wear” clothes?

Yes, it is the same verb sa.

Core meaning: to put, place, put on.

Common uses:

sa miya a cikin kwano – to put soup into a bowl
sa takalmi – to put on / wear shoes
sa rigar nan – put on that shirt
sa hannu – to put (one’s) hand, to sign (figurative)

So in this sentence, sa means “to put / place”:
tana sa miya a cikin kwano – “she is putting soup in the bowl.”

What’s the difference between a cikin kwano and just a kwano? Are both correct?

Both can be grammatically correct, but they feel slightly different:

a cikin kwano – literally in the inside of the bowl; emphasizes being inside the bowl.
a kwano – in/at the bowl; less explicit about “inside”; could be understood as the location “at the bowl”.

In practice:

For contents inside a container, a cikin
- noun is very natural and common:
  - a cikin kwano, a cikin tukunya (in the pot), a cikin jaka (in the bag).
Just a kwano is not wrong, but a cikin kwano sounds more precise and idiomatic for “in the bowl” (like food being put into it).

Is there a difference between a kan tebur and akan tebur?

They are very close in meaning and often both used in writing and speech.

a kan tebur literally: “on top of the table”
akan tebur – a more fused form; many speakers pronounce and write it as one word.

Functionally, both mean “on the table”. You will see:

a kan tebur (two words) – slightly more explicit as “at/on top of”
akan tebur (one word) – very common, especially in fast speech or informal writing

For learners, it’s safe to treat them as equivalents meaning “on (top of) the table”.

What does miya refer to exactly? Is it like English “soup”?

miya is usually a thick sauce or stew, often eaten with a staple like tuwo, fura, shinkafa (rice), etc.

Compared to English:

English soup is often more liquid and standalone.
Hausa miya is typically thicker and is part of a full meal, not usually eaten by itself.

Translations depend on context:

miya → “soup” or “stew” or “sauce” in English.
In your sentence, both soup and stew would be acceptable translations.

What does mana mean here, and how is it different from mu?

mana is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to us / for us”.

In ta kawo mana, we have:

ta – she
kawo – bring
mana – to us / for us

So ta kawo mana = “she brings (it) to us”.

Comparison:

mu – the independent pronoun “we / us” (subject or object in isolation):
- mu – we
- ka gani mu – you saw us
mana – “to us / for us” (dative/benefactive clitic attached to the verb phrase):
- ka ba mu littafi – you gave us a book
- ka ba mana littafi – you gave a book to us / for us

In many contexts mu and mana can both appear with verbs, but mana specifically encodes that “to/for” relationship, which fits “bring to us” here.

How would I say this in the past tense, like “Mother put the soup in the bowl before she brought it to us on the table”?

You would drop the progressive na and use the simple perfective forms:

Uwa ta sa miya a cikin kwano kafin ta kawo mana a kan tebur.

Changes:

tana sa → ta sa (she is putting → she put / has put)
ta kawo stays ta kawo; context and kafin indicate a completed past sequence.

So:

Present/progressive: Uwa tana sa miya… kafin ta kawo mana…
Past/simple: Uwa ta sa miya… kafin ta kawo mana…

Can I omit Uwa and just say Tana sa miya… if the context is clear?

Yes. Hausa often omits the full noun if the subject is clear from context; the subject pronoun in the verb remains:

With noun:
Uwa tana sa miya a cikin kwano kafin ta kawo mana a kan tebur.
Without noun (still feminine subject, understood from context):
Tana sa miya a cikin kwano kafin ta kawo mana a kan tebur.

But you cannot omit the subject pronouns themselves (tana, ta) in normal speech. You drop Uwa, but you keep tana and ta.