Learn Hardcore Hausa: Don Allah kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi. - Please don’t walk in a hurry in the street.

So in Don Allah kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi, Don Allah is softening the command kar ku yi…. It turns a bare “Don’t walk fast in the street” into something closer to “Please don’t walk fast in the street” or “For goodness’ sake, don’t walk fast in the street.”

How does kar ku yi make a negative command, and what are the parts?

kar ku yi is a negative imperative directed at “you (plural)”.

Breakdown:

kar – a particle used to make negative commands/prohibitions
ku – subject marker / pronoun for “you (plural)” in this kind of command
yi – form of the verb yi (“to do, make”) which here combines with tafiyà (“journey/walk”) to mean “to walk / to travel”

So kar ku yi tafiya… literally is something like “let you (pl.) not do walking…”, i.e. “don’t walk…”

Pattern to remember for negative commands:

kar ka… – don’t (you, male singular) …
kar ki… – don’t (you, female singular) …
kar ku… – don’t (you all, plural) …

Then you add the verb after that.

Why is it ku here and not ka or ki? What exactly does ku mean?

ku in this sentence is the 2nd person plural subject marker/pronoun. It means “you (all)” / “you (plural)”.

In negative commands with kar, you choose the subject according to who you are speaking to:

kar ka yi tafiya… – don’t walk… (talking to one male)
kar ki yi tafiya… – don’t walk… (talking to one female)
kar ku yi tafiya… – don’t walk… (talking to more than one person)

So kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi is addressed to a group (e.g. several children, a group of friends, etc.).

What is the role of yi together with tafiyà? Why not just use tafi?

Hausa often uses light verbs like yi (“do, make”) combined with a verbal noun to express an action.

Here:

yi – “to do”
tafiyà – “journey, trip, walking, going”

yi tafiya is an idiomatic way to say “to go / to travel / to walk”.

You can also use the simple verb tafi (“to go”), for example:

kar ku tafi cikin sauri a titi – Don’t go so fast in the street.

The nuance:

yi tafiya can feel more like “to walk / to be on a journey / to move along”
tafi is a more straightforward “to go (from here to there)”

In many everyday contexts, kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi and kar ku tafi cikin sauri a titi would both be understandable and quite close in meaning.

What does cikin sauri literally mean, and why does it mean “fast / quickly”?

Literally:

cikin – “inside, in the middle of, within”
sauri – “speed, quickness”

So cikin sauri is literally “in speed / in quickness”, and it functions adverbially: “quickly, fast”.

It’s similar to English expressions like “in a hurry”, where a preposition + noun acts like an adverb.

A couple of related patterns:

da sauri – also “quickly, fast”
a hankali – “slowly, gently, carefully” (literally “in gentleness/care”)

In this sentence, yi tafiya cikin sauri ≈ “walk in speed” → “walk fast / walk quickly.”

Can I replace cikin sauri with da sauri? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can usually say:

kar ku yi tafiya da sauri a titi

This is also “don’t walk fast in the street.”

Nuance:

cikin sauri and da sauri both mean “quickly / fast” and are very commonly used.
In many everyday contexts, they are effectively interchangeable.
da sauri is extremely common in speech; cikin sauri can sound slightly more descriptive (“in speed”), but it’s not a big, strict difference.

For a learner, it’s safe to treat cikin sauri and da sauri as near-synonyms meaning “quickly / fast.”

What does a titi mean exactly, and why is the preposition a used here?

a titi breaks down as:

a – a general locative preposition meaning “in / on / at” (depending on context)
titi – “road, street”

So a titi means “on the street / in the street / in the road.”

Hausa a is very flexible and covers meanings that English splits into “in / on / at.” For places:

a gida – at home
a kasuwa – at the market
a titi – in/on the street

Other prepositions exist (like kan, “on top of,” cikin, “inside”), but a is the normal, broad, neutral locative preposition for places like titi.

Could the word order be different, like putting cikin sauri somewhere else in the sentence?

The given order is:

Don Allah kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.

Natural alternatives could be:

Don Allah kar ku yi tafiya a titi cikin sauri.

Both sound acceptable, and speakers may move cikin sauri around slightly for emphasis or rhythm.

However, these would be strange or wrong:

✗ Don Allah kar ku cikin sauri yi tafiya a titi.
✗ Don Allah cikin sauri kar ku yi tafiya a titi. (very odd as a normal sentence)

General guidance:

Keep kar + (subject) + verb together: kar ku yi…
Put manner adverbs like cikin sauri near the main verb phrase, before or after the object/complement, but don’t split kar ku yi apart.

How polite or strong does this sentence sound? Is kar ku yi… harsh?

The structure kar ku yi… by itself is a direct prohibition:

Kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi. – Don’t walk fast in the street.

That is straightforward and could sound firm, especially from an adult to children, or from a teacher, etc.

Adding Don Allah at the beginning:

Don Allah kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.

softens it. It now sounds more like:

“Please don’t walk fast in the street.”
“For goodness’ sake, don’t walk fast in the street.”

It’s still clearly a prohibition, but with Don Allah it is more polite / pleading than a bare kar ku yi….

What is the difference between kar and kada in negative commands?

Both kar and kada are used to make negative imperatives / prohibitions.

Examples:

Kar ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.
Kada ku yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.

Both mean: “Don’t walk fast in the street.”

Nuances:

In everyday speech, kar is very common and often shorter/faster to say.
kada can sound a bit more formal or emphatic in some contexts, and it’s very visible in writing and in more careful speech.

For practical purposes as a learner, you can treat:

kar ku… ≈ kada ku… – “don’t (you all) …”

and similarly:

kar ka… / kada ka… – don’t (you, male sg) …
kar ki… / kada ki… – don’t (you, female sg) …

If I’m talking to just one child, how would this sentence change?

You only need to change the subject marker from plural ku to the appropriate singular form.

To a boy (or male in general):

Don Allah kar ka yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.
- Please don’t walk fast in the street.

To a girl (or female in general):

Don Allah kar ki yi tafiya cikin sauri a titi.

Everything else stays the same:

Don Allah – please
kar – negative command
yi tafiya – walk
cikin sauri – fast
a titi – in/on the street