Kar ku wuce gidanmu.

Don’t go past our house.

Breakdown of Kar ku wuce gidanmu.

• ku: you (plural)
• gidan: the house
• kar: don't
• wuce: to pass

Questions & Answers about Kar ku wuce gidanmu.

What does each word in Kar ku wuce gidanmu literally mean?

Broken down word by word:

• kar – a negative command marker, roughly “don’t / don’t let”.
• ku – “you (plural)”, the subject pronoun.
• wuce – “pass, go by, go past”.
• gidanmu – “our house”.
  
  • gida – house
  • -n- – a linker sound that often appears before possessive endings
  • -mu – “our” (1st person plural possessive suffix)

So the structure is: Don’t + you (pl) + pass + our-house.

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What exactly does kar do here, and how is it different from other Hausa negatives like ba?

Kar (often also kada) is used specifically for negative commands or warnings (negative imperative/subjunctive).

• With kar, you are telling someone not to do something:
  • Kar ku wuce gidanmu. – Don’t pass our house.
• Ba is the general negative used in statements, not commands:
  • Ba za ku wuce gidanmu ba. – You will not pass our house.

So:

• Use kar/kada when you are ordering, warning, advising.
• Use ba … ba when you are just stating a negative fact.

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Is there any difference between kar and kada?