Mu mukan yi addua tare kafin mu fara aiki da safe.

We usually say a prayer together before we start work in the morning.

Breakdown of Mu mukan yi addua tare kafin mu fara aiki da safe.

• aiki: the work
• da: during
• yi: to do
• mu: we

Questions & Answers about Mu mukan yi addua tare kafin mu fara aiki da safe.

What does mu mean, and why does it appear so many times?

Mu is the subject pronoun “we”.

In the sentence you see it in three ways:

1. Mu (at the very start):

   • This is the independent / emphatic pronoun.
   • It puts focus/emphasis on “we”, like: As for us, we usually…
   • You could drop this first Mu and just say Mukan yi addu'a… without changing the basic meaning.

2. mukan:

   • This is actually mu + kan written together.
   • Here mu is the subject pronoun attached to the habitual marker kan (see the next question).

3. kafin mu fara:

   • In the “before we start” clause, mu is again the subject pronoun “we” in that subordinate clause.
   • Hausa normally requires a subject pronoun in such clauses, so you cannot just say kafin fara (“before starting”) the way you can in English. You must say kafin mu fara (“before we start”).

So:

• First Mu = emphatic “we”.
• The mu inside mukan = the normal subject “we” for the main verb.
• The last mu = subject “we” for the kafin (“before”) clause.

What exactly does mukan mean, and why not just say mu yi addu'a?