Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta ji haushi lokacin da na manta da aikin gida da ta ba ni. - Mother felt annoyed when I forgot the homework that she gave me.

Uwa ta ji haushi lokacin da na manta da aikin gida da ta ba ni.

Mother felt annoyed when I forgot the homework that she gave me.

Breakdown of Uwa ta ji haushi lokacin da na manta da aikin gida da ta ba ni.

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Questions & Answers about Uwa ta ji haushi lokacin da na manta da aikin gida da ta ba ni.

What does ta ji haushi literally mean, and why is it used for “got angry”?

Literally:

ta = “she” (3rd person feminine subject marker)
ji = “to hear / to feel”
haushi = “annoyance, resentment, anger”

So ta ji haushi is literally “she felt annoyance / she felt resentment.”

In actual usage, ji haushi is an idiomatic way to say:

“to be annoyed / offended / angry (about something)”

It’s roughly like English “to take offense” or “to feel hurt/angry.” Hausa also has:

ta yi fushi – she was angry / she sulked
ta fusata – she got (very) angry, lost her temper

But ta ji haushi focuses on feeling offended or upset inside, not necessarily shouting or exploding with anger.

Why do we have both Uwa and ta? Isn’t that like saying “Mother she got angry”?

Yes, word‑for‑word it looks like “Mother she got angry,” but in Hausa that’s normal and required.

Uwa = “(the) mother”
ta = feminine subject marker “she”

In Hausa, a subject pronoun/marker like ta, ya, na, ka must normally appear with the verb, even if you already said the noun subject:

Ali ya tafi. – Ali went.
Uwa ta ji haushi. – Mother got angry.

So ta is not redundant; it’s how Hausa verbs show who did the action. English does this inside the verb ending (go vs goes); Hausa does it with an explicit little pronoun in front of the verb.

Could Uwa ta ji haushi also mean “my mother got angry,” even though there is no “my”?

Yes, it often will be understood as “my mother” in context.

Literally, Uwa ta ji haushi just says “Mother got angry” or “The mother got angry.” Hausa does have explicit possessive forms:

uwata – my mother
uwarka / uwarki – your (m./f.) mother
uwarsa / uwarta – his / her mother

So, more precise versions are:

Uwata ta ji haushi. – My mother got angry.
Uwarka ta ji haushi. – Your mother got angry.

However, in many real situations, just saying Uwa ta… can naturally refer to your own mother, depending on context (for example, if you’re telling a personal story). That’s why an English translation often uses “My mother…” even though -ta (my) is not overtly there.

What exactly does lokacin da mean here? Is da a word for “when”?

Breakdown:

lokaci = time
lokacin = “the time of / when” (genitive form: -n is like “of / the”)
da here works like a relative marker, similar to “that / when”

So lokacin da literally is:

“the time that…” → “when…”

In this sentence:

lokacin da na manta…
= “the time that I forgot…”
= “when I forgot…”

There are other common ways to say “when” in Hausa, for example:

sanda na manta… – when I forgot…
yayin da na manta… – while/when I forgot…

But lokacin da is very standard and a bit more literal: “the time that…”

What is the function of na in lokacin da na manta?

Here na is the 1st person singular subject marker in the perfective aspect:

na manta = “I forgot”

Compare:

na manta – I forgot
ka manta – you (m.) forgot
kin manta – you (f.) forgot
ya manta – he forgot
ta manta – she forgot

So na shows that I am the one who did the action, and that it’s viewed as a completed event (past / perfective).

Why is there a da after manta (na manta da aikin gida)?

In Hausa, the verb manta (“to forget”) is usually followed by da when you mention what you forgot:

manta da X = “forget X”

So:

na manta da aikin gida
literally = “I forgot with the homework / I forgot about the homework”
idiomatically = “I forgot the homework.”

You generally don’t say *na manta aikin gida without da. The da is part of the normal pattern for this verb, somewhat like English “to forget about X,” though in Hausa it’s more obligatory.

The word da appears twice. Is it the same word in manta da and aikin gida da ta ba ni?

They’re the same form (da), but they play different grammatical roles:

na manta da aikin gida
- Here da is a preposition (like “with / about”).
- manta da X = “forget (about) X.”
aikin gida da ta ba ni
- Here da is a relative marker, like English “that / which.”
- aikin gida da ta ba ni = “the homework that she gave me.”

So:

First da = preposition linked to the verb manta
Second da = introduces a relative clause describing aikin gida

What does aikin gida mean exactly? “Housework” or “homework”?

Literally:

aiki = work
aikin gida = “work of the house” / “house work”

Depending on context, aikin gida can mean:

Housework / chores
- cleaning, washing dishes, sweeping, etc.
Homework (school assignments)
- especially when the context is school, teachers, or classes.

In many real contexts, Hausa speakers use aikin gida for school homework as well, because it’s “work to be done at home.”
If you need to be very clear in a school context, you might see aikin gida na makaranta (“homework from school”), but often aikin gida alone is enough.

Why doesn’t the relative clause say aikin gida da ta ba ni shi? Where is the “it”?

Good observation. The underlying structure is essentially:

aikin gida da ta ba ni shi
= “the homework that she gave me it”

But Hausa often omits the object pronoun when it refers back to the noun already mentioned and is clear from context. So:

aikin gida da ta ba ni
is completely natural and understood as
“the homework that she gave me (it)”.

If you keep shi, it sounds heavier and is usually only used when you really want to emphasize “that particular one”:

aikin gidan nan da ta ba ni shi – that (specific) homework that she gave me (that one).

What is ba in da ta ba ni? Isn’t ba also a negative word in Hausa?

Here ba is the verb “to give”, in the perfective aspect:

ta ba ni = “she gave (to) me”

Breakdown:

ta – she (subject marker)
ba – gave
ni – me (independent pronoun, used as indirect object)

Yes, Hausa also has bà / ba as a negative particle, for example:

ba na son shi – I don’t like it/him.

These are two different words with the same spelling:

ba (verb) – to give
ba / bà (negative) – used in negative constructions

Context and position in the sentence tell you which one is meant. In ta ba ni, it must be the verb “gave.”

Why is the indirect object “me” expressed as ni and put after ba (in ta ba ni)?

Hausa uses independent pronouns like ni, kai, ke, shi, ita after verbs to mark indirect objects (“to me, to you,” etc.):

ta ba ni – she gave me
ta ba shi – she gave him
na ba su – I gave them

So:

ni here = “me,” functioning as the indirect object (“to me”).
The word order is: subject marker – verb – (indirect object pronoun)
→ ta ba ni = she gave me.

If you also want to mention the thing that was given, it usually comes before the relative clause (as in this sentence: aikin gida) or directly before/after the verb in a simpler sentence:

Ta ba ni aikin gida. – She gave me homework.
Ta ba ni littafi. – She gave me a book.

What is the overall word order in the relative clause da ta ba ni compared to English “that she gave me”?

The relative clause da ta ba ni matches English word order quite closely:

da – that
ta – she
ba – gave
ni – me

So:

Hausa: aikin gida da ta ba ni
literally: “the homework that she gave me”

Structure:

[head noun] + da + [subject] + [verb] + [indirect object]

This is very similar to English “the homework that she gave me.”
The main differences are:

Hausa uses da for “that/which” (relative marker).
Hausa marks the subject with ta before the verb.

How does Hausa show past tense in this sentence? There is no word like “did” or “was.”

Hausa doesn’t use a separate word like “did” for past. Instead, it uses verb forms with subject markers that encode aspect (perfective/imperfective) and often imply past time.

In this sentence:

ta ji – she felt / she heard (perfective) → “she got (angry)”
na manta – I forgot (perfective)

The perfective aspect usually refers to completed actions, which in narratives are typically past events. So you get the meaning “got angry” and “forgot” without a separate “did” word.