Musa ya kira ni ta waya.

Word-by-word:

• Musa – the proper name Musa (Moses).
• ya – 3rd person masculine subject + completed-action marker: roughly “he (did)”.
• kira – “call” (the verb to call).
• ni – “me” (1st person singular object pronoun).
• ta – preposition meaning “by / via / through / using”.
• waya – “wire / telephone”, and in modern use simply “phone”.

So the structure is:

Musa ya kira ni ta waya
Musa he.PFV call me by phone

The basic order Subject – (subject/tense marker) – Verb – Object – Prepositional phrase lines up very closely with English:

Musa called me by phone.
Musa ya kira ni ta waya.

Ya does two jobs at once:

1. It shows the subject: 3rd person singular masculine (“he”).
2. It shows the aspect/tense: perfective – a completed action (often translated as a simple past in English).

So ya kira means roughly “he called / he has called”.

Some other perfective forms with kira:

• Na kira ni – I called me (nonsense, but shows the form: na = I.PFV)
• Na kira shi – I called him.
• Ka kira ni – You (m.sg) called me.
• Ta kira ni – She called me.
• Mun kira ni – We called me (again, just for pattern: mun = we.PFV)
• Sun kira ni – They called me.

The subject/tense information lives in that short element (na, ka, ya, ta, mun, kun, sun) before the verb, not on the verb itself. The verb kira stays the same.

In Musa ya kira ni ta waya, kira functions as a verb: “to call”.

However, kira can also act as a verbal noun meaning “a call / a calling / an invitation”. That allows another phrasing like:

• Musa ya yi mini kira ta waya.
  Literally: Musa did for-me a call by phone.
  Meaning: Musa made a call to me by phone.

Here:

• ya yi = he did/made (verb yi = to do/make),
• mini = to me (ma “to/for” + ni “me”),
• kira = a call (noun),
• ta waya = by phone.

So both are natural:

• Musa ya kira ni ta waya. – Musa called me by phone.
• Musa ya yi mini kira ta waya. – Musa made a call to me by phone.

In a neutral sentence, the direct object pronoun normally comes immediately after the verb:

• ya kira ni – he called me
• ya kira shi – he called him
• ya kira mu – he called us

So the normal order is:

Subject – subject/tense marker – Verb – Object pronoun – (other bits)
Musa ya kira ni ta waya

You cannot just move ni around freely:

• ✗ Musa ya ni kira ta waya – ungrammatical.
• ✗ Musa ya kira ta waya ni – ungrammatical in normal speech.

For emphasis or contrast, you can front the pronoun as a topic:

• Ni Musa ya kira ta waya.
  “It was me that Musa called by phone.”

But that has a special “It’s me in particular” feel, not the neutral word order.

Hausa has a word ta that can be:

1. A subject/tense marker: 3rd person feminine, perfective

   • Ta kira ni. – She called me.

2. A preposition meaning “by / via / through / using”

   • ta waya – by phone
   • ta mota – by car
   • ta jirgi – by plane.

In Musa ya kira ni ta waya:

• ta is a preposition, not a subject marker.
• You can tell because it comes before a noun (waya), not before a verb.

Compare:

• Ta kira ni ta waya. – She called me by phone.
  First Ta = she.PFV (subject/tense marker before verb)
  Second ta = by (preposition before noun).

So you distinguish them by position and function:

• Before a verb → usually the feminine subject/tense marker.
• Before a noun → preposition “by / via / through”.

Both are used:

• ta waya – literally “by/through phone”, focusing on the means/method.
• a waya – literally “at/on the phone”, more like a location/medium idea.

In many everyday contexts, they overlap in meaning, and you will hear both:

• Musa ya kira ni ta waya. – Musa called me by phone.
• Musa ya kira ni a waya. – Musa called me on the phone.

For a learner, it’s safe to treat ta waya and a waya here as near-synonyms; ta waya is particularly common for “by phone” as a means of communication.

Yes.

• Musa ya kira ni. – Musa called me.
  (No specific information about how – could be by phone, in person, etc., depending on context.)

Adding ta waya just specifies the means: it tells you that the call was by phone:

• Musa ya kira ni ta waya. – Musa called me by phone.

So ta waya is optional extra detail, not grammatically required.

Keep the structure and change only the object pronoun:

• Musa ya kira ni ta waya. – Musa called me by phone.
• Musa ya kira ka ta waya. – Musa called you (masc. singular) by phone.
• Musa ya kira ki ta waya. – Musa called you (fem. singular) by phone.
• Musa ya kira ku ta waya. – Musa called you (plural) by phone.
• Musa ya kira shi ta waya. – Musa called him by phone.
• Musa ya kira ita ta waya. – Musa called her by phone.
• Musa ya kira mu ta waya. – Musa called us by phone.
• Musa ya kira su ta waya. – Musa called them by phone.

Notice that all these pronouns come right after the verb kira and before ta waya.

Two useful patterns:

Future

Use the future marker zai:

• Musa zai kira ni ta waya.
  Musa will call me by phone.

Structure: Musa – zai – kira – ni – ta waya.

Negative past (did not)

Use the negative perfective pattern bai … ba for 3rd person masculine:

• Musa bai kira ni ta waya ba.
  Literally: Musa he-did-not call me by phone not.
  Meaning: Musa didn’t call me by phone.

For comparison:

• Ya kira ni ta waya. – He called me by phone.
• Bai kira ni ta waya ba. – He didn’t call me by phone.

Yes, that is correct and very natural.

• Ya kira ni ta waya. – He called me by phone.

Here ya already encodes “he (past/perfective)”, so you don’t need to say Musa again if it’s clear from context who “he” is.

You can also add an independent pronoun for emphasis or contrast:

• Shi ya kira ni ta waya. – HE (as opposed to someone else) called me by phone.

But the plain, context-dependent version Ya kira ni ta waya is completely grammatical and common.