Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi, ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.

Whenever I change address, I send my friends my phone number.

Breakdown of Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi, ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.

• ne: to be
• aboki: the friend
• na: of
• wa: to
• waya: the phone
• canza: to change
• duk lokacin da: whenever
• adireshi: the address
• lamba: the number
• turo: to send

Questions & Answers about Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi, ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.

What does Duk lokacin da literally mean, and how is it used?

It literally means “every time that / whenever.”

• duk = all, every
• lokacin (from lokaci) = the time
• da = that / when (a linker here)

So Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi… = “Every time (that) I change address…” / “Whenever I change address…”

You can use duk lokacin da at the start of a clause to talk about repeated or habitual situations:

• Duk lokacin da nake jin ƙishirwa, ina shan ruwa.
  “Whenever I feel thirsty, I drink water.”

Why is it na canza and not ina canza if the meaning is “whenever I change (address)”?

Na canza here is perfective aspect (“I changed / I have changed”), but in Hausa, perfective is commonly used in “whenever / if” clauses even for repeated or future events.

• na canza = I changed / I (have) changed
• ina canza = I am changing / I (usually) change (progressive / habitual)

In a temporal or conditional clause introduced by duk lokacin da / idan / da, Hausa typically uses the perfective:

• Duk lokacin da na gaji, ina hutawa.
  “Whenever I get tired, I rest.”

So na canza is natural here; ina canza would sound more like “while I am in the process of changing (address), …” which isn’t the intended meaning.

What exactly is the role of wa in ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta? Can I omit it?

Wa here marks the indirect object (“to my friends”):

• turo = to send
• turo wa X Y = send Y to X

So:

• Ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.
  = “I send my phone number to my friends.”

Without wa, ina turo abokaina lambar waya ta is often still understandable, but standard, careful Hausa prefers wa with a full noun phrase indirect object:

• Ina turo wa su lambar waya ta. (with pronoun “them”: su)
• Ina turo musu lambar waya ta. (“I send them my phone number.”)

So: keep “wa”; it is doing the job of English “to” here.

Why is the word order “ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta” and not like English “I send my phone number to my friends” (direct object before indirect object)?

Hausa default order here is:

[verb] + [wa + indirect object] + [direct object]

So:

• Ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.
  = “I send to my friends my phone number.”

You can also say:

• Ina turo lambar waya ta wa abokaina.

Both are acceptable, but “turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta” is very natural and common. Learners should be comfortable with both patterns, but the sentence given uses the very typical verb + wa + indirect object + direct object order.

What does abokaina mean exactly, and how is it formed?

Abokaina means “my friends.”

Breakdown:

• aboki = friend (singular)
• abokai = friends (plural)
• -na = my (1st person singular possessive suffix)

→ abokai + na → abokaina = my friends

Other forms:

• abokina = my (male) friend (one friend)
• abokiyata = my (female) friend
• abokansu = their friends

So abokaina is one word meaning “my friends.” Hausa often attaches possessive suffixes directly to the noun like this.

Why is it lambar waya ta for “my phone number”? Why not just lambar waya or lambata?

Lambar waya ta is a noun phrase with two levels of possession:

1. lambar waya = phone number

   • lamba = number (feminine noun)
   • lambar waya = “the number of the phone / phone number”

2. ta = my (1st person sg. possessive, agreeing with a feminine head noun)

So:

• lambar waya ta = “my phone number”

Other possibilities and how they differ:

• lambata = “my number” (not necessarily a phone number; could be any number)
• lambar wayata = literally “the number of my phone” (also used in practice for “my phone number”; many speakers would accept this)

The form in your sentence, lambar waya ta, makes it very clear that the phone number itself is possessed by “me.”

Why is the possessive pronoun ta used, not na, in lambar waya ta?

In Hausa, the short possessive pronoun can agree with the grammatical gender of the head noun:

• lamba (number) is grammatically feminine, so:
  • lambara (definite) → lambar in construct
  • Possessive: ta (feminine “my”)

So:

• lambar ta = her/my number (depending on context; with the right context, ta is 1sg poss here)
• lambar waya ta = my phone number

You might also see lambar wayata (with waya + ta) in speech or writing. But the important idea is: for many feminine head nouns, you will often see -ta as “my,” and for masculine / non-feminine heads, -na:

• motata = my car (mota = car, feminine)
• gidana = my house (gida = house, masculine)

Can adireshi also take a possessive suffix, like adireshina (“my address”)? Why is it just adireshi here?

Yes, you can say adireshina = “my address.”

• adireshi (or adiresi depending on dialect/spelling) = address
• adireshina = my address

In the sentence:

• Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi…

this is more like English “whenever I change address” (without explicitly saying “my”), which is still natural in English too:

• “Whenever I change address, I send my friends my phone number.”

Because it’s obvious whose address is being changed (the speaker’s own), Hausa often omits the explicit possessor in such contexts. You could say:

• Duk lokacin da na canza adireshina, ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.

This is also correct, just a bit more explicit.

Is ina turo here describing what I’m doing right now, or is it a habitual action?

In this sentence, ina turo is habitual:

• Ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.
  = “I send my phone number to my friends (whenever this situation arises).”

The imperfective/progressive form (ina + verb) can express:

1. An action happening right now:
   
   • Ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta yanzu.
     “I am sending my phone number to my friends now.”
2. A repeated / habitual action, especially with an adverbial like duk lokacin da:
   
   • Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi, ina turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta.
     “Whenever I change address, I (usually) send my phone number to my friends.”

So context (here, duk lokacin da) tells us it’s a habit, not just something happening at the present moment.

Could I say idan na canza adireshi or duk sanda na canza adireshi instead of duk lokacin da na canza adireshi? Do they mean the same thing?

Yes, these are very close in meaning, with small nuances:

• Duk lokacin da na canza adireshi…
  “Whenever I change address…” (very clear “every time that…”)
• Idan na canza adireshi…
  “If / when I change address…” (conditional or temporal “if/when”)
• Duk sanda na canza adireshi…
  “Every time that I change address…” (duk sanda ~ “every time that” / “whenever”)

In many everyday contexts, duk lokacin da, idan, and duk sanda can overlap in translation as “whenever / when(ever).”

However, duk lokacin da and duk sanda emphasize the repeated, habitual nature slightly more clearly than a bare idan.

Could I replace wa abokaina with a pronoun, like “them”? How would that look in Hausa?

Yes. You can use a bound pronoun as the indirect object:

• Ina turo musu lambar waya ta.
  = “I send them my phone number.”

Here:

• mu = us
• su = them
• -su in musu = to them

Structures:

• turo wa abokaina lambar waya ta = send my phone number to my friends
• turo musu lambar waya ta = send my phone number to them

Both are natural. The original sentence uses the full noun phrase abokaina (“my friends”) instead of the pronoun.

Is there any difference between writing lambar waya ta and joining it as lambar wayata?

In practice:

• lambar waya ta and lambar wayata can both be used and both are understood as “my phone number.”

Structural difference:

• lambar waya ta:
  
  • lambar (number-of) + waya (phone) + ta (my, agreeing with lamba)
  • “the number of the phone, mine”
• lambar wayata:
  
  • lambar (number-of) + wayata (my phone)
  • “the number of my phone”

Semantically, in everyday speech they end up meaning the same thing. The version you have (lambar waya ta) is slightly more transparent for learners, because you can see the possessive clearly at the end.