Learn Hardcore Hausa: Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo. - Father did not drive the dog out of the living room, even though he was annoyed by the noise.

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo.

Father did not drive the dog out of the living room, even though he was annoyed by the noise.

Breakdown of Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo.

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Questions & Answers about Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo.

What is the function of bai … ba in Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, and where does this pattern go in negative sentences?

bai … ba is the standard way to make a negative perfective (a completed‑action negative) for a 3rd person masculine subject in Hausa.

Structure here:

Baba – Father / Dad (subject)
bai … ba – negative perfective frame for he
kora kare daga falo – chase the dog out of the living room (verb phrase)

So the pattern is:

Baba bai [VERB + OBJECTS + EXTRA PHRASES] ba.
– Father did not [verb …].

Note that the final ba comes at the very end of the clause, after the object and any prepositional phrases:

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba. ✅
Not: ✗ Baba bai kora kare ba daga falo.

Why is it bai kora and not something like ba ya kora or baya kora if we want to say “did not chase”?

Hausa distinguishes two main things here:

Perfective negative (completed action: “did not …”)
- 3rd person masculine: bai + VERB + ba
- Example:
  - Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba.
    – Father did not chase the dog out of the living room (on that occasion).
Imperfective negative (habitual/ongoing: “does not / is not …ing”)
- 3rd person masculine: ba ya + VERB‑noun (often written baya in fast speech/spelling)
- Example:
  - Baba ba ya korar kare daga falo.
    – Father does not (usually) chase the dog out of the living room.

So:

bai kora … ba = did not chase (a specific, completed event)
ba ya korar … = does not chase / is not chasing (general or ongoing)

Who does ya refer to in ko da yake ya fusata da amo – Baba or the dog?

In ko da yake ya fusata da amo, the ya is a 3rd person masculine subject pronoun and, in this context, it refers back to Baba, not to kare.

Reasoning:

The main clause subject is Baba.
The subordinate clause introduced by ko da yake starts a new clause and needs its own subject, so Hausa repeats it with ya.
A dog can be annoyed in real life, but grammatically, Hausa normally continues with the human subject here unless context strongly says otherwise.

So:

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo.
= Father didn’t chase the dog out of the living room, even though he (Baba) was annoyed by the noise.

Can ko da yake be moved to the beginning of the sentence, like “Even though he was annoyed by the noise, Father didn’t chase the dog out of the living room”?

Yes. Hausa allows the concessive clause with ko da yake to come first:

Ko da yake ya fusata da amo, Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba.

This is fully natural and has the same meaning:

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, ko da yake ya fusata da amo.
Ko da yake ya fusata da amo, Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba.

The only difference is emphasis or flow, just like in English. Fronting ko da yake … can make the contrast feel a bit stronger, but both are correct.

What exactly does kora mean here, and how is it different from using something like fitar da?

In this sentence, kora means to chase away / drive out / expel. It implies forcing someone or something to go away, often against their will:

kora kare daga falo – to chase the dog out of the living room.

Comparison:

kora – drive out, chase away
- Sun kori mutumin daga gida. – They drove the man out of the house.
fitar da – take out, bring out (more neutral, not necessarily forceful)
- Sun fitar da kare daga falo. – They took the dog out of the living room.

So kora suggests the dog didn’t just calmly walk out; it was driven or chased out (or would have been, if it had happened).

Why do we say daga falo (“from the living room”) after kora, and not just a falo?

Prepositions in Hausa:

a – usually in / at / on (location)
daga – usually from (movement away, source)

With verbs that involve removing or moving something away from a place (like kora, fito, tashi, etc.), Hausa normally uses daga to show where it is being removed from:

kora kare daga falo – chase the dog from the living room.
Sun tashi daga gida. – They left from home.
Na fito daga ofis. – I came out of the office.

If you said a falo after kora kare, it would sound more like you are just saying the dog is in the living room, not that it is being driven out from there.

So daga falo is the right choice after kora.

Is kare here the same word as the verb kare “to protect/defend”? How can I tell them apart?

They are two different words that just happen to be written the same way in standard Hausa spelling:

kare (noun) – dog
kare (verb) – to protect, defend, prevent

The difference is:

Part of speech and position
- In the sentence Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba, after the verb kora you expect a noun object, so kare here is naturally “dog”.
- The verb kare would normally appear as the main verb (e.g. ya kare shi – he protected him).
Tone (pitch)
In spoken Hausa, they have different tone patterns, but tone is usually not written, so learners rely more on context.

So:

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba.
– Here kare must be a noun (“dog”), because kora needs an object.
A verb use would look like:
- Ya kare shi daga hatsari. – He protected him from danger.

What does fusata literally mean, and how is it different from yin fushi?

fusata is a verb that means something like to get angry / to become annoyed / to lose your temper.

ya fusata – he got angry / he became annoyed

yin fushi uses the noun fushi (anger, sulking, being cross) with yi (to do):

yana yin fushi – he is sulking / he is in a state of anger
ya yi fushi – he got angry (more like “he took offense” or “he is/was angry”)

Nuance:

fusata focuses on the emotional reaction or flare‑up:
- Maganar ta fusata shi. – The remark made him angry.
yin fushi often suggests a state, sometimes a sulky or offended mood:
- Yaro yana yin fushi. – The child is sulking / is in a huff.

In ya fusata da amo, the idea is that the noise provoked his irritation – he was annoyed by it.

What is the role of da in ya fusata da amo? Does it mean “with” or “because of”?

The da in ya fusata da amo links the cause of the emotion to the verb fusata. In English it is best understood as “because of / at / over”:

ya fusata da amo
– he was annoyed by the noise / he got angry about the noise.

With emotion verbs, Hausa often uses da:

Na gaji da wannan aiki. – I am tired of this work.
Ta ji daɗi da sakon. – She was pleased with the message.

Literally da often means with, but in these constructions it works like with, at, by, because of, depending on context. Here, “annoyed by the noise” is a natural English equivalent.

Could I change the sentence to talk about more than one dog, like “Father didn’t chase the dogs out of the living room”?

Yes. The main thing you change is the object noun:

kare – dog (singular)
karnuka – dogs (plural)

So you can say:

Baba bai kora karnuka daga falo ba.
– Father did not chase the dogs out of the living room.

Notes:

The verb kora itself does not change form for plural subjects or objects; only the nouns and pronouns change.
As in English, whether it means “the dogs” or “some dogs” depends on context; Hausa does not always mark definiteness explicitly.

Is the tense in Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba closer to English “did not chase” or “has not chased”?

It is closer to “did not chase” (simple past, a completed event).

bai kora … ba – negative perfective, typically used for:
- one or more finished events in the past
- or a specific expected action that did not happen

Examples:

Jiya bai zo aiki ba. – Yesterday he did not come to work.
Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba. – Father did not chase the dog out of the living room (on that occasion).

To express a stronger “has never done this (up to now)” idea, Hausa often adds taɓa:

Baba bai taɓa korar kare daga falo ba.
– Father has never chased the dog out of the living room.

Are there other common ways to say “even though” in Hausa besides ko da yake?

Yes. ko da yake is very common, but there are several other ways to express “even though / although” or similar contrasts:

ko da
- Sometimes ko da alone is used, especially in spoken Hausa:
  - Ko da ya fusata da amo, bai kora kare daga falo ba.
duk da cewa
- More formal/literary, like “despite the fact that”:
  - Duk da cewa ya fusata da amo, Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba.
ko da haka / duk da haka
- More like “even so / nevertheless / however” (often starts a new sentence):
  - Ya fusata da amo; duk da haka, bai kora kare daga falo ba.

Among these, ko da yake is a very standard, clear way to say “even though / although.”

Where exactly does the final ba have to go in a negative sentence like this? Could it come right after the verb?

In the negative perfective pattern ba SUBJECT‑PRONOUN VERB … ba, the final ba normally goes at the very end of the clause, after:

the verb
the direct object
any prepositional or adverbial phrases that belong to that clause

So:

Baba bai kora kare daga falo ba. ✅
– Father did not chase the dog out of the living room.

Wrong placements would be:

✗ Baba bai kora ba kare daga falo.
✗ Baba bai kora kare ba daga falo.

Think of ba … ba as a pair that wraps the entire clause:

[Ba iša ba] – it is not enough
Baba [bai kora kare daga falo ba]. – Father did not chase the dog out of the living room.