Uwa ta hana yara fita waje da dare.

the child

Breakdown of Uwa ta hana yara fita waje da dare.

• da: during
• dare: the night
• fita: to go out

Questions & Answers about Uwa ta hana yara fita waje da dare.

What does each word in Uwa ta hana yara fita waje da dare literally mean?

Word by word:

• Uwa – mother
• ta – she (3rd person feminine subject marker in the perfective)
• hana – to forbid, to prevent
• yara – children (plural of yaro = child)
• fita – going out / to go out (verbal noun of fità “go out”)
• waje – outside, outdoors (also “place” in other contexts)
• da – with / at; here used in time expressions
• dare – night

So a very literal gloss is:

Mother – she-forbid – children – going out – outside – at – night.

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What is ta here? Is it a pronoun, a tense marker, or both?

ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject marker in the perfective aspect.

In Hausa, these subject markers cover both person/gender and aspect (a bit like a combined pronoun + tense/aspect marker). Some common ones in the perfective are:

• na – I
• ka – you (masc. sg.)
• ki – you (fem. sg.)
• ya – he / it (masc.)
• ta – she / it (fem.)
• muka – we (emphatic past)
• suka – they (emphatic past), etc.

In this sentence:

• Uwa is the noun “mother”.
• ta agrees with uwa (which is feminine), so you get Uwa ta hana… = The mother (she) forbade…

You could, in the right context, drop Uwa and just say Ta hana yara fita waje da dare = She forbade the children from going outside at night, if it’s already clear who “she” is.

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