Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki. - Mother put one thousand naira in the bank account.

Uwa ta ajiye…
- Uwa = mother (the topic / full noun)
- ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject marker (“she”)
- ajiye = saved / deposited / put aside

The normal pattern is:

[Full subject] + [subject marker] + [verb]

So:

Uwa ta ajiye… = Mother she-saved… (grammatical)
Ta ajiye… = She saved… (also fine)
Uwa ajiye… = ungrammatical in standard Hausa (missing ta).

What exactly does ta mean here? Is it just “she”?

Ta mainly does two things at once:

It marks person/number/gender of the subject:
- ta = 3rd person singular, feminine (“she / it (fem)”)
In this sentence it also marks perfective aspect (a completed action).

So ta ajiye is roughly “she (has) saved / she saved,” with the idea that the saving is already done. Hausa does not use a separate word like “has”; the form ta + verb itself expresses the completed action.

Why is ta feminine? How would the sentence change if it were “Father” instead of “Mother”?

Hausa has grammatical gender, and many nouns are classified as masculine or feminine.

uwa (mother) is feminine, so it uses ta.
baba (father) is masculine, so it uses ya.

So:

Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki.
Mother saved one thousand in the bank account.

If you change the subject:

Baba ya ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki.
Father saved one thousand in the bank account.

Here only uwa → baba and ta → ya change; the rest stays the same.

Does Uwa here mean “a mother,” “the mother,” or “Mother” (like my mum)?

Hausa does not use separate words like a / an / the. Whether it means:

“a mother” (any mother),
“the mother” (some specific mother),
or “Mother / Mum” (someone’s own mother),

depends entirely on context.

So uwa can be interpreted as:

A mother saved…
The mother saved…
Mum saved…

If speakers mean “my mother”, they often make it explicit:
uwa ta = my mother (literally mother mine), e.g.
Uwa ta ta ajiye dubu ɗaya… = My mother saved one thousand…

What does ajiye mean exactly? Is it “save,” “keep,” or “deposit”?

Ajiye is a general verb meaning to put down, to put aside, to keep, to store, to save.

With money and a bank context, as in this sentence, it naturally means “to save / to deposit”.
With other things it can mean:
- Ajiye littafi a tebur. – Put/leave the book on the table.
- Ajiye kayanki nan. – Put your things here / leave your things here.

So in Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki, the context asuusun banki makes ajiye mean deposited / saved in the account.

Does dubu ɗaya specifically mean “one thousand naira”?

Dubu ɗaya literally just means “one thousand”.

dubu = one thousand (a thousand units of something)
ɗaya = the number one

If you want to be explicit about naira, you can say:

naira dubu ɗaya – one thousand naira
dubu ɗaya naira – also understandable, though naira dubu ɗaya is more idiomatic.

In many real-life contexts, if you are already talking about money, dubu ɗaya will be understood as one thousand naira (or the local currency) without saying naira.

Why is it dubu ɗaya and not ɗaya dubu? Why does the number come after?

In Hausa, numbers normally come after the noun they count, especially for 1–10:

mutum ɗaya – one person
littafi uku – three books
dubu ɗaya – one thousand

So the pattern is:

[thing being counted] + [number]

Putting the number before (e.g. ɗaya dubu) is incorrect in this structure. Think of dubu as a noun meaning “a thousand,” and ɗaya simply specifies “one thousand.”

What does the preposition a do in a asusun banki? Does it mean “in” or “at”?

A is a very common preposition in Hausa. It often corresponds to English “in, at, on”, depending on the context.

In a asusun banki it is best understood as “in”:

a asusun banki = in the bank account

Other examples:

a gida – at home / in the house
a makaranta – at school
a kan tebur – on the table

So here a simply locates the action: Where did she save the money? – a asusun banki (in a bank account).

What does asusu mean, and why is it asusun banki and not just asusu banki?

Asusu is a noun meaning account, fund, pot, savings group / box, depending on context.

When you join two nouns in a possessive / “of” relationship (the genitive), Hausa usually adds a linking -n / -r to the first noun:

Noun ending in a vowel → add -n
- asusu + n → asusun
Noun ending in many consonants → often -in / -n (with vowel support)

So:

asusu – an account
asusun banki – the bank’s account / a bank account

Literally: account-of bank.

That is why you see asusun banki, not bare asusu banki.

Can I just say a banki instead of a asusun banki?

Yes, but the meaning shifts slightly:

a banki – at / in the bank
a asusun banki – in the bank account

Compare:

Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a banki.
– Mother deposited one thousand at the bank.
(More general; she went to the bank and left the money there in some way.)
Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki.
– Mother deposited one thousand in a/the bank account.
(More precise: she put it into an account.)

Both are correct; a asusun banki is just more specific.

How would I say “Mother is saving one thousand in the bank account” (ongoing or habitual), not just “Mother saved…”?

For an ongoing / habitual action, Hausa uses an imperfective form. One common pattern (especially in spoken Hausa) is:

Uwa na ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki.
– Mother is saving / usually saves one thousand in the bank account.

Here:

na (or ke in some dialects) marks imperfective aspect (ongoing / repeated),
while ta ajiye is perfective (completed action):
Uwa ta ajiye… – She (has) saved / saved (it’s done).
Uwa na ajiye… – She is saving / keeps saving (ongoing or habitual).

How do you pronounce the letter ɗ in ɗaya and dubu ɗaya?

ɗ represents a special sound in Hausa: a voiced alveolar implosive. There is no exact equivalent in English, but you can approximate it.

Tips:

Start as if you are about to say d, with your tongue on the ridge behind your teeth.
Pull your tongue slightly inward as you voice the sound, rather than pushing air out strongly.
It will sound a bit like a “soft d.”

So:

d in dubu – like the normal English d in day.
ɗ in ɗaya – a “special d” with that inward, implosive quality.

Learners often just pronounce ɗ like a normal d at first; people will still understand you, but it’s good to be aware that Hausa distinguishes the two.

How would I turn this sentence into a yes–no question like “Did Mother save one thousand in the bank account?”

Spoken Hausa often keeps the word order the same and relies on intonation (rising tone) or context to mark a question:

Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki?
– Did Mother save one thousand in the bank account?

You just say it with questioning intonation.

You can also add a question word like ko? at the end in informal speech:

Uwa ta ajiye dubu ɗaya a asusun banki, ko?
– Mother saved one thousand in the bank account, right? / Did she?