Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta ga kusan duk maɓallan gidan sun ɓace, sai ta ajiye guda ɗaya a jaka. - Mother saw that almost all the house keys were missing, so she kept one in a bag.

Uwa – mother
ta – she (3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun, perfective)
ga – saw (perfective form of gani “to see”)
kusan – almost
duk – all
maɓallan – keys (plural of maɓalli “key”)
gidan – the house / of the house (gida “house” + possessive/definite ending ‑n)
sun – they (3rd person plural subject pronoun, perfective)
ɓace – disappeared / are missing / have been lost
sai – so / then (here, a linking conjunction)
ta – she (again, 3sg feminine subject pronoun, perfective)
ajiye – put / set down / kept
guda ɗaya – one single one (literally “one unit, one”)
a – in / at / on (general preposition of location)
jaka – bag

Very literal sense:
“Mother saw [that] almost all the keys of the house had disappeared, so she put one (single) (of them) in a bag.”

Why is it “ta ga” and not something like “ta gani” for “she saw”?

The verb gani (“to see”) has an irregular perfective (simple past) form: ga.

gani – to see (infinitive / dictionary form)
na gani – I see / I saw (context decides)
na ga – I saw (clearly perfective/past)
ta ga – she saw
ya ga – he saw

In this sentence ta ga is the 3rd person feminine subject pronoun ta plus the perfective stem ga, meaning “she saw”, referring back to Uwa (“mother”).

What does “kusan duk” mean, and can the order change?

kusan duk literally combines:

kusan – almost / nearly
duk – all

Together they mean “almost all” or “nearly all”.

The common, natural order for this meaning is kusan duk, not duk kusan.
So:

kusan duk maɓallan gidan – almost all the house keys
duk maɓallan gidan – all (of) the house keys

If you said duk kusan maɓallan gidan, it would sound odd or unclear; the standard collocation is kusan duk + [plural noun].

How is “maɓallan gidan” formed, and why is there an ‑n at the end of gida?

maɓallan gidan breaks down as:

maɓalli – key
maɓallan – keys (plural; the ‑n marks a plural form here)
gida – house
gidan – the house / of the house

Two things are going on:

Plural of “maɓalli”
- singular: maɓalli – key
- plural: maɓallan – keys
Genitive / possessive construction (“keys of the house”)
Hausa marks the second noun in a possessive phrase with a linker that often surfaces as ‑n / ‑r. It also tends to give a definite sense: “the house”, not just “a house.”

So maɓallan gidan literally is “the house’s keys” or “the keys of the house.”

Why do we have “sun ɓace” and not just “ɓace” by itself? What does “sun” do here?

sun is the 3rd person plural subject pronoun in the perfective:

suna – they (are) … (imperfective)
sun – they (have) … (perfective)

The clause maɓallan gidan sun ɓace is a full sentence:

maɓallan gidan – the house keys (subject, plural)
sun – they (3pl perfective subject)
ɓace – disappeared / are missing

So literally: “The house keys, they have disappeared.”

You generally need a subject pronoun like sun with verbs in Hausa; you don’t just say “ɓace” alone. The pronoun carries the tense/aspect and agreement.

Is “sun ɓace” more like “disappeared” or “are missing”?

ɓace often describes a state resulting from disappearance or loss. With sun, it is perfective:

sun ɓace – they have disappeared / they are (now) missing

In English, this can be translated variously as:

“had disappeared”
“had gone missing”
“were missing”

The focus is that the keys are no longer there, and that change has already taken place by the time the mother sees it. Context determines whether you pick a more “event-like” translation (“disappeared”) or a “state-like” one (“were missing”).

How does Hausa express “that” in “she saw that the keys had disappeared”? I don’t see any word for “that.”

In Hausa, you often don’t need an explicit equivalent of English “that” to introduce a subordinate clause.

English:

“She saw that almost all the house keys had disappeared.”

Hausa:

Uwa ta ga kusan duk maɓallan gidan sun ɓace …
literally: “Mother saw almost all the house keys they disappeared…”

The clause kusan duk maɓallan gidan sun ɓace functions as the object of ta ga (“she saw”). Hausa simply juxtaposes the main verb ga with a following clause; no extra “that” word is required.

What does “sai” mean here, and does it always mean “so/then”?

In this sentence:

sai ta ajiye guda ɗaya a jaka – so / then she put one in a bag.

Here sai is a linking conjunction meaning something like “so, then, as a result, and then.” It connects the result or next action.

However, sai is very versatile in Hausa and can have several uses, including:

“only / except”
- babu kowa sai ni – there is nobody except me / only me
“until” (in some constructions)
“then/next” in narratives
Introducing conditional or contrastive clauses

So it does not always mean “so/then,” but in this context, that is the correct interpretation.

Why is it “ta ajiye” and not something like “ta ajiya”? What does “ajiye” mean exactly?

The verb here is ajiye, which means:

to put down
to set aside
to keep (somewhere)
to store / place

ta ajiye is:

ta – she (3sg feminine perfective subject pronoun)
ajiye – put (down) / set aside (perfective form)

So ta ajiye means “she put (it)” or “she set (it) down.”

There is a related noun ajiya which means “storage, safekeeping, deposit”, but the verb form used here is ajiye, not ajiya. That’s why it must be ta ajiye, not ta ajiya.

Why do we say “guda ɗaya” for “one”? Isn’t “ɗaya” already “one”?

Yes, ɗaya means “one”. But guda is a kind of classifier / unit word that often combines with numerals to emphasize individual units, especially in counting, distributing, or emphasizing quantity.

ɗaya – one
guda ɗaya – one single one / one unit

In many contexts, Hausa speakers use guda + numeral:

guda ɗaya – one
guda biyu – two
guda uku – three

In this sentence, guda ɗaya conveys “one (single) one”, contrasting with “almost all” having disappeared. It highlights that only one key was put in the bag.

Can “guda ɗaya” stand by itself, or does it always have to be followed by a noun?

guda ɗaya can function:

With a noun (more explicit):
- guda ɗaya maɓalli – one key (you might also say maɓalli guda ɗaya)
By itself, when the noun is understood from context, like in this sentence.
Earlier we are talking about maɓallan gidan (house keys), so when we say:
- sai ta ajiye guda ɗaya a jaka
it is understood as “so she put one (key) in a bag.”
Native speakers regularly omit the noun when the reference is clear.

What does “a jaka” mean exactly, and how is “a” used in general?

a jaka is:

a – a general preposition of location/time: in, at, on
jaka – bag

So a jaka means “in a bag” or “into a bag” (context gives the “into” sense).

a is quite broad and can mean:

location: a gida – at home
general place: a kasuwa – at the market
sometimes time: a daren jiya – last night

If you want to be more explicitly “inside,” you can say cikin jaka (“inside the bag”), but a jaka is often enough and perfectly natural.

Why is it “gidan” and not just “gida” for “house” in “maɓallan gidan”?

gida by itself is “house, home” in a general or indefinite sense.

In maɓallan gidan, we have a possessive / genitive construction:

maɓallan – keys
gidan – the house / of the house

The ‑n on gidan:

Links gida to the preceding noun maɓallan (“keys of …”), and
Makes it definite: “the house”, not just “a house.”

So:

gida – a house / house
gidan – the house / of the house (“the house’s”)

That’s why it must be maɓallan gidan and not maɓallan gida.

How do we know “ta” refers to the mother (Uwa) and not someone else?

In Hausa, the subject pronoun must agree in person, number, and gender with the subject. Here:

Uwa – mother (a female person)
ta ga … – she saw …
sai ta ajiye … – so she put …

The 3rd person feminine subject pronoun in the perfective is ta. Because the only feminine singular human noun mentioned is Uwa, ta naturally refers to the mother. If it were a masculine subject, you’d get ya instead:

Baba ya ga … – The father saw …
sai ya ajiye … – then he put …

So the agreement of ta with Uwa tells you they are the same participant.