Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa tana amfani da tukunya babba idan tana dafa tuwo. - Mother uses a big pot when she is cooking tuwo.

Uwa – mother
tana – she is (3rd person singular feminine + progressive marker na)
amfani – use / usage (a verbal noun “use”)
da – with
tukunya – pot
babba – big
idan – if / when / whenever
tana – she is
dafa – cook (usually something thick like porridge, soup, tuwo)
tuwo – tuwo (a thick staple food made from e.g. maize, millet, rice flour)

So literally:
“Mother she-is use with pot big if/when she-is cook tuwo.”
Natural English: “Mother uses a big pot when she cooks tuwo.”

Does “uwa” mean “a mother”, “the mother”, or “my mother” here?

Hausa doesn’t use articles like “a” or “the”, so uwa by itself just means “mother” in a general sense.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

“Mother uses a big pot…” (talking about my mother in a family context)
“A mother uses a big pot…” (generic)
“The mother uses a big pot…” (specific mother already known in the conversation)

If you want to be explicitly possessive:

uwar su – their mother
uwar mu – our mother
uwar gida – the mother/wife of the household

For “my mother” you more often see:

mama ta / uwata – my mother (informal/common)

But in many family or story contexts, uwa alone is naturally understood as “(the) mother” of the context.

What exactly is “tana” and why is it used instead of a separate “she” plus a verb?

tana is a combined form:

ta – “she / it (feminine)” (3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun)
na – progressive/imperfective aspect marker (“be doing”, “do/does” in ongoing or habitual sense)

Together ta + na → tana, meaning roughly “she is (doing)”.

Hausa does not usually say:

✗ ta na amfani (spelled separately)

Instead, it fuses: tana amfani.

So “tana amfani da…” = “she is using …” / “she uses …”.
That’s why there is no separate little word for “she”; it’s built into tana.

Why is “tana” used twice in the sentence? Could I drop one of them?

The sentence has two clauses, each with its own verb phrase:

Uwa tana amfani da tukunya babba
– Mother is using a big pot / Mother uses a big pot
idan tana dafa tuwo
– when she is cooking tuwo / when she cooks tuwo

Each clause needs its own subject–aspect combination, so you get tana in both.

You cannot normally drop the second tana:

✗ … idan dafa tuwo – ungrammatical or at least very incomplete.

You can shorten or rephrase the first part in more casual speech, for example:

Uwa na amfani da tukunya babba idan tana dafa tuwo.
(Here na directly follows the noun in a more colloquial pattern.)

But in the given form, both “tana” are needed to mark the verbs in their own clauses.

Why do we say “amfani da” instead of just a simple verb like “use”?

Hausa often uses a verbal noun + “da” to express meanings that English puts in a single verb.

amfani – “use, usage” (a noun)
yin amfani da X – “to make use of X / to use X”
tana amfani da X – “she is using X / she uses X”

Here, “da” literally means “with”, so “amfani da tukunya babba” is like saying:

“(the) use with a big pot” → “using a big pot”

You cannot drop da here:

✗ tana amfani tukunya babba – incorrect.

The standard pattern is:

(subject) + (prog. marker) + amfani da + (thing used)
e.g. Yana amfani da waya – He uses a phone.

What is the role of “da” in “amfani da tukunya babba”? Is it the same “da” that means “and”?

Yes, it is the same word “da”, but here it functions as a preposition “with”, not “and”.

In Hausa, da can mean:

“and” – linking two nouns
- ruwa da tuwo – water and tuwo
“with / by means of” – showing the instrument or accompaniment
- tana amfani da tukunya babba – she uses a big pot (lit. uses with a big pot)

In “amfani da tukunya babba”, it is clearly “with”:

use with a big pot → use a big pot

Why is it “tukunya babba” instead of putting “big” before “pot” like in English?

In Hausa, adjectives normally come after the noun, unlike in English.

tukunya babba – big pot
mace tsawo – tall woman
gida kyau – beautiful house

So:

English: big pot
Hausa: tukunya babba

You’ll also see forms with agreement and a linking consonant, e.g.:

babbar tukunya – (a) big pot (also very common / slightly more “careful” structure)

Both “tukunya babba” and “babbar tukunya” are understandable as “a big pot”; your sentence uses the simpler noun + adjective order.

What exactly does “idan” mean here? Is it “if” or “when”?

idan can mean “if” or “when/whenever”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Uwa tana amfani da tukunya babba idan tana dafa tuwo.

the meaning is habitual:

“Mother uses a big pot when(ever) she cooks tuwo.”

So idan is best understood as “when” / “whenever” here.

If you want a more purely temporal “at the time when”, you can also say:

Uwa tana amfani da tukunya babba lokacin da take dafa tuwo.
(literally “at the time that she is cooking tuwo”)

But idan here is completely natural and common for “when(ever)” in habitual statements.

What tense or aspect is expressed by “tana amfani da” and “tana dafa” in this sentence?

tana + verb/verbal noun is the progressive / imperfective aspect.

It usually covers:

Present continuous – she is using / she is cooking (right now)
Habitual present – she uses / she cooks (regularly)

In this sentence, because of idan (“when/whenever”), the natural reading is habitual:

“Mother uses a big pot whenever she cooks tuwo.”

So, grammatically it’s the progressive/imperfective, but its meaning in context is “does (as a habit)” rather than “is doing (just this moment)”.

What is “tuwo”? Is it a specific dish, or can it mean any food?

tuwo is a specific type of food, not just any food.

It is a thick, smooth, starchy mass made from flour or grains (e.g. maize, millet, rice).
It is usually rolled into balls or mounds and eaten with soups or stews.

Common types you may hear:

tuwo masara – tuwo made from maize
tuwo shinkafa – tuwo made from rice
tuwo dawa – tuwo made from guinea corn

In English, people sometimes translate tuwo as “swallow”, “dumpling-like paste”, or simply leave it as tuwo and explain culturally.

So in the sentence:
“when she cooks tuwo” means “when she prepares that thick staple porridge/dough served with soup.”

How would I say the negative: “Mother does not use a big pot when she cooks tuwo”?

You negate the present/progressive in Hausa using “ba … ba” around the verb phrase and dropping the -na part.

Starting from:

Uwa tana amfani da tukunya babba idan tana dafa tuwo.

Negative of the first clause:

Uwa ba ta amfani da tukunya babba ba idan tana dafa tuwo.
= Mother does not use a big pot when she cooks tuwo.

Notes:

tana → ba ta … ba in the negative.
The second clause (idan tana dafa tuwo) stays positive, because we’re only negating the “use a big pot” part in this sentence.

How would I say “Mothers use big pots when they cook tuwo” (everything in the plural)?

You need to pluralize both “mother” and “pot”, and make the adjective plural too.

One natural version:

Uwaye suna amfani da tukunyoyi manya idan suna dafa tuwo.

Breakdown:

uwaye – mothers (plural of uwa)
suna – they are (3rd person plural + progressive marker na)
tukunyoyi – pots (plural of tukunya)
manya – big (plural form of babba)
idan suna dafa tuwo – when they cook tuwo

Meaning: “Mothers use big pots when they cook tuwo.”

How can I make it clearer that this is her usual habit, not just something happening now?

The sentence as given already sounds habitual in context, but Hausa has a special marker “kan” for habitual actions.

You can say:

Uwa kan yi amfani da babbar tukunya idan tana dafa tuwo.

Here:

kan yi – usually/typically does (habitual marker kan
- verb yi)
yi amfani da – to use (lit. “do use”)
babbar tukunya – a big pot

This version strongly suggests “Mother typically/usually uses a big pot when she cooks tuwo.” rather than just describing what is happening on one particular occasion.