Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki. - Mother drove the children out of the kitchen.

So uwa ta kora is literally something like “mother she-chased”.
You usually must keep the pronoun with the verb; you can’t just say ✗ Uwa kora yara…

You could, however, drop uwa if it’s clear who you’re talking about:

Ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki.
= She chased the children out of the kitchen.

But you cannot drop ta and keep only uwa. The pronoun is grammatically required; the full noun is optional for clarity or emphasis.

What tense or aspect is ta kora? Is this a simple past?

Ta kora here is in the perfective aspect, which often corresponds to a simple past in English.

ta kora ≈ she chased / she drove out (finished action)

Some useful contrasts:

ta kora yara – she chased the children (completed event)
tana korar yara – she is chasing / she keeps chasing the children (ongoing)
kan kori yara (e.g. Uwa kan kori yara daga ɗaki) – she usually / habitually chases the children out (habitual action)

So in this sentence, we understand that the action of chasing is already completed.

Why is ta (feminine) used here, and what would change if it was the father instead of the mother?

Hausa subject pronouns agree with the natural gender of the subject when it’s human and singular.

uwa (mother) → feminine → ta kora
baba (father) → masculine → ya kora

So with baba the sentence would be:

Baba ya kora yara daga ɗakin girki.
= The father chased the children out of the kitchen.

Key forms for 3rd person singular:

ya – he / it (masculine)
ta – she / it (feminine)

What exactly does the verb kora mean? Is it “to chase”, “to expel”, or something else?

kora means roughly “to drive away, chase away, expel, dismiss.”

Depending on context, it can be:

She chased the children (away).
She drove the children out.
She expelled the children (from the room).

It very often appears with daga (“from/out of”) to show where someone is being driven out from:

Ta kora su daga gida. – She drove them out of the house.
An kora shi daga aiki. – He was fired from work.

In this sentence, kora … daga ɗakin girki naturally gives the idea “chased (them) out of the kitchen.”

What does daga mean here, and how is it different from just saying the children were “in” the kitchen?

daga is a preposition meaning “from, out of, away from, since.”

In this sentence:

daga ɗakin girki = from/out of the kitchen

It tells us the source or starting point of the movement: the children are being moved away from the kitchen.

Compare:

a ɗakin girki – in the kitchen (location)
daga ɗakin girki – from/out of the kitchen (movement away from)

So ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki emphasizes removing them from the kitchen, not just that they were in the kitchen.

How is ɗakin girki built up? What are the meanings of ɗaki and girki separately?

The phrase ɗakin girki is a genitive construction (a kind of noun–noun phrase).

ɗaki = room
girki = cooking

When you join ɗaki and girki, Hausa adds a linking/possessive -n (or -r, -n depending on the word) to the first noun:

ɗaki + -n + girki → ɗakin girki

Literally this is like “room of cooking”, which we translate as “kitchen.”

Structure:

ɗaki (room)
ɗakin girki (cooking-room → kitchen)

So ɗakin girki is “the cooking room”, i.e. the kitchen.

Why is it ɗakin girki and not just ɗaki girki? What is the function of the -n?

The -n in ɗakin girki is the genitive linker (also called the “construct” marker).

In Hausa, when you put two nouns together in a relationship like “X of Y” or “Y’s X”, you usually:

Put the head noun first (the main thing being described)
Attach a small linker (-n / -r / -n with vowel changes) to it
Follow it with the second noun

So:

ɗaki (room) + girki (cooking)
→ ɗakin girki (cooking room, kitchen)

Without the -n, ✗ ɗaki girki sounds wrong to Hausa speakers; the genitive relationship is not properly marked. The linker is part of normal grammar for “X of Y” relationships:

gidan malam – the teacher’s house / house of the teacher
muryar uwa – the mother’s voice / voice of the mother

Does yara mean “the children” or just “children” in general? How do you say “the children” specifically?

yara is the plural of yaro (boy / child). On its own, yara is often understood as “children”, and whether it’s “the children” or “(some) children” depends on context.

If you want to make “the children” very explicit, you can say yaran:

yara – children (can be definite or indefinite by context)
yaran – the children (more clearly definite)

So you might see:

Uwa ta kora yaran daga ɗakin girki.
→ The mother chased the children out of the kitchen.

In everyday speech, though, just yara with a clear context will often be understood as the children.

What is the singular form of yara, and are there any irregularities I should know?

Singular:

yaro – child / boy

Plural:

yara – children (boys and/or girls; context gives the gender mix)

This is one of the common irregular plural patterns in Hausa, where the vowels and sometimes consonants change. You don’t make the plural by just adding a suffix like in English. A few similar patterns:

ɗan → ’ya’ya (child → children, offspring)
mutum → mutane (person → people)

So learn yaro / yara as a pair.

Is the word order here fixed as Subject–Verb–Object, like in English? Could you put ta first, for example?

The default word order in Hausa main clauses is indeed Subject – (Subject Pronoun) – Verb – Object – Other elements.

In your sentence:

Uwa – subject (full noun)
ta – subject pronoun (required before the verb)
kora – verb
yara – object
daga ɗakin girki – prepositional phrase

So the normal order is:

Uwa ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki.

You cannot freely scramble these like:

✗ Ta kora yara uwa daga ɗakin girki. (wrong)
✗ Uwa yara ta kora daga ɗakin girki. (wrong)

You can drop the noun uwa if it’s clear from context, giving:

Ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki. – perfectly grammatical.

But the pronoun + verb + object order itself stays stable.

How would I say “The mother is chasing the children out of the kitchen” (right now), instead of a completed past event?

To express an ongoing action (like English present continuous “is V-ing”), Hausa uses the progressive form, often with na / tana / yana + verbal noun.

One natural way:

Uwa tana korar yara daga ɗakin girki.

Breakdown:

uwa – mother
tana – she is (3rd singular feminine progressive marker: ta + na)
korar – chasing (verbal noun form of kora)
yara – children
daga ɗakin girki – from/out of the kitchen

So:

Uwa ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki. – The mother chased the children out of the kitchen. (completed)
Uwa tana korar yara daga ɗakin girki. – The mother is chasing the children out of the kitchen. (ongoing)

How is the consonant ɗ in ɗaki / ɗakin pronounced? Is it just like English d?

ɗ is not the same as ordinary d. It’s an implosive sound, produced with a little inward movement of air.

Practical tips for English speakers:

Put your tongue where you would for an English d.
Instead of pushing air out, “pop” the sound inwards slightly, with the glottis moving down.
It may sound like a heavier, “swallowed” d.

Many learners at first pronounce ɗ just like d, and most speakers will still understand you. But contrasting pairs exist (in some dialects) like:

doki – horse
ɗoki – (in some varieties, could be a different word)

So it’s worth learning the distinction: ɗ has a more “implosive / gulped” quality than d.

Could I say just Uwa ta kora su daga ɗakin girki instead of yara? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can.

Uwa ta kora yara daga ɗakin girki.
– The mother chased children (the children) out of the kitchen.
Uwa ta kora su daga ɗakin girki.
– The mother chased them out of the kitchen.

Here:

yara – explicitly names the children
su – 3rd person plural pronoun (they / them)

You’d normally use su when the people have just been mentioned or are obvious from context, and you don’t need to repeat yara / ’ya’ya / manya etc.

Both versions are correct; one uses a full noun for the object, the other uses a pronoun.