Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta dafa kaza yau. - Mother cooked chicken today.

A full noun (uwa) can appear as the subject.
The subject pronoun (ta) is still required and attaches to the verb phrase to show agreement (person, number, gender).

You usually cannot drop the pronoun and say just *Uwa dafa kaza yau – that would be ungrammatical. The pronoun is part of the verb system.

However, if the subject is already known from context, you can drop the noun and just say:

Ta dafa kaza yau. – She cooked chicken today.

What tense or aspect is expressed by ta dafa? Is it past, present, or something else?

Ta dafa is in the perfective aspect, which in many contexts corresponds to a completed action in the past.

In this sentence, it naturally reads as:

“Mother cooked chicken today” (she has already finished cooking).

Basic contrasts:

Perfective (completed):
- Uwa ta dafa kaza yau. – Mother cooked chicken today / has cooked chicken today.
Progressive / ongoing:
- Uwa na dafa kaza yanzu. – Mother is cooking chicken now.
  (Here na is the progressive marker.)
Future / planned:
- Uwa za ta dafa kaza gobe. – Mother will cook chicken tomorrow.
  (za ta = she will.)

So in your sentence, ta dafa presents the cooking as a finished event.

How would I say “Mother is cooking chicken” instead of “Mother cooked chicken”?

Use the progressive (imperfective) construction with na:

Uwa na dafa kaza. – Mother is cooking chicken.

Structure:

uwa – mother
na – progressive marker agreeing with a 3rd person singular subject
dafa – cook
kaza – chicken

For emphasis on “right now”, you can add yanzu (now):

Uwa na dafa kaza yanzu. – Mother is cooking chicken now.

Does kaza mean a specific chicken (“the chicken”) or just “chicken” in general? How do I show definite vs indefinite?

Hausa does not have a separate word like English “the” or “a”. The word kaza by itself can be translated as:

a chicken, the chicken, or chicken (meat)

depending on context.

Generic / indefinite “chicken”:
- Uwa ta dafa kaza yau. – Mother cooked chicken today. (we don’t care which chicken specifically)
Definitely “that chicken / the chicken”:
Hausa often makes definiteness explicit using:
- Demonstratives:
  - kazar nan – this chicken
  - waccar kazar – that chicken
- Possession:
  - kazar mu – our chicken
- Relative clause:
  - kazar da muka saya – the chicken that we bought

So to force something like “Mother cooked that chicken today”, you could say:

Uwa ta dafa waccar kazar yau. – Mother cooked that (particular) chicken today.

Can kaza also mean “chicken meat,” like “Mother cooked chicken (as food)”?

Yes. kaza can refer to:

the animal (a chicken), or
chicken meat as food.

When you’re talking about cooking, it’s completely natural to understand:

Uwa ta dafa kaza yau.
as Mother cooked chicken (meat) today.

If you really wanted to emphasize it as meat, you could add nama (meat):

Uwa ta dafa naman kaza yau. – Mother cooked chicken meat today.

But in everyday speech, kaza alone is often enough.

Is uwa “mother” in general, or specifically “my mother”? How would I say “my mother”?

uwa by itself means “mother” in a general or context-dependent way:

It can mean a mother or the mother depending on the situation.

To say “my mother”, you add a possessive ending:

uwata – my mother
uwarka – your (m.sg.) mother
uwarki – your (f.sg.) mother
uwar sa – his mother
uwar ta – her mother
uwar mu – our mother
uwarku – your (pl.) mother
uwar su – their mother

So:

Uwata ta dafa kaza yau. – My mother cooked chicken today.

How do I know to use ta and not ya here?

Hausa verbs agree in gender with 3rd person singular subjects:

ya – 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun (he)
ta – 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (she)

The noun uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine, so the correct agreement is:

Uwa ta dafa kaza yau. – Mother (she) cooked chicken today.

If the subject were uba (father), you would use the masculine pronoun:

Uba ya dafa kaza yau. – Father cooked chicken today.

If the context already makes it clear we’re talking about the mother, can I drop uwa and just say ta dafa kaza yau?

Yes.

The subject pronoun (ta) is required,
but the full noun (uwa) is optional if the listener already knows who “she” is.

So if you’ve already mentioned your mother, you can say simply:

Ta dafa kaza yau. – She cooked chicken today.

What you cannot do is drop the pronoun and leave only the noun:

*Uwa dafa kaza yau. – ungrammatical. The verb still needs its subject pronoun.

What is the normal word order in this sentence? Could I say “Uwa ta dafa yau kaza”?

Standard Hausa word order is S–V–O–(other elements):

Uwa (S)
ta dafa (V)
kaza (O)
yau (Adverb of time)

So Uwa ta dafa kaza yau follows the normal pattern.

Adverbs of time like yau (today) usually appear:

At the end of the clause:
- Uwa ta dafa kaza yau.
Or at the very beginning, for emphasis:
- Yau uwa ta dafa kaza. – Today, mother cooked chicken.

Putting yau in the middle like *Uwa ta dafa yau kaza is not natural Hausa.

Does the position of yau change the meaning, or just the emphasis?

The basic meaning stays the same: the event happened today.

Difference is mostly in focus / emphasis:

Uwa ta dafa kaza yau.
– Neutral: Mother cooked chicken today.
Yau uwa ta dafa kaza.
– Emphasizes “today”, something like:
Today (as opposed to other days), mother cooked chicken.

So you can move yau to the front to highlight the time.

Is dafa a general word for “cook,” or is it more like “boil”? How do I talk about frying or roasting?

dafa is often used for cooking by boiling / simmering, especially things cooked in water or sauce (rice, beans, stews, etc.), and can serve as a rather general verb for cooking in many contexts.

More specific cooking verbs include:

soya – to fry / shallow- or deep-fry
- Uwa ta soya kaza. – Mother fried chicken.
gasa – to roast / grill / bake (without much liquid)
- Uwa ta gasa kaza. – Mother roasted/grilled chicken.
dafa – cook/boil/stew
- Uwa ta dafa kaza. – Mother cooked (probably stewed/boiled) chicken.

In everyday conversation, dafa can be used quite broadly, but if you want to be specific about the method, use soya or gasa.

How would I say “Mother did not cook chicken today”?

To negate this perfective sentence, Hausa uses the ba … ba pattern with the subject pronoun:

Uwa ba ta dafa kaza ba yau.
– Mother did not cook chicken today.

Breakdown:

ba … ba – negation markers (they surround the verb phrase)
ta – she (still required)
dafa – cook

You can also move yau:

Yau, uwa ba ta dafa kaza ba. – Today, mother didn’t cook chicken.

In informal writing, ba ta is often written together as bata, but ba ta is clearer for learners.

How would this sentence change if the subject were plural, like “The mothers cooked chicken today” or “They cooked chicken today”?

The subject pronoun must agree in number as well as gender.

For plural:

sun – 3rd person plural subject pronoun (they)

Examples:

“The mothers cooked chicken today.”
- Uwoyi sun dafa kaza yau.
  - uwoyi – mothers (plural of uwa)
  - sun dafa – they cooked
“They cooked chicken today.” (when “they” is clear from context)
- Sun dafa kaza yau. – They cooked chicken today.

The structure is the same; only the subject noun (if present) and the subject pronoun change.