Learn Hardcore Hausa: Uwa kan saka murfi a kan tukunya idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai. - Mother usually puts a lid on the pot when the water is boiling a lot.

Uwa kan saka murfi… = A mother *usually / typically puts a lid…*
It tells you this is something that happens regularly, as a habit, not just one time.

Compare:

Uwa tana saka murfi… – The mother is putting / usually puts the lid… (more neutral, can describe a current ongoing action or a general habit, depending on context)
Uwa kan saka murfi… – sounds more like a rule, custom, or typical behavior.

So kan after the subject emphasizes “this is what she normally does”.

Is the kan in a kan tukunya the same word as the first kan?

They are related historically but function differently here.

First kan (after Uwa)
- Grammatical function: aspect marker (habitual).
- Meaning: indicates a regular, usual action.
Second kan in a kan tukunya
- Here a is a preposition (“at / in / on”), and kan is literally “head, top, surface”.
- a kan tukunya = on the top of the pot / on the pot.

So in this sentence:

kan after Uwa = “usually”.
a kan before tukunya = “on (top of)”.

Could I write akan tukunya instead of a kan tukunya?

Yes, you will see a kan and akan used in very similar ways.

a kan tukunya
akan tukunya

Both can mean “on the pot / on top of the pot”.

Many speakers alternate between a kan and akan in everyday usage. In writing, some prefer a kan when they want to make it visually clear that a is a separate preposition and kan is “top/surface”, but for meaning, a kan tukunya and akan tukunya are effectively the same in this context.

What exactly does saka mean here? I thought it meant “to wear”.

Saka can mean:

to put something somewhere / to insert
to put clothes on / to dress / to wear

In this sentence:

saka murfi = to put a lid (on) → to put the lid in place.

Other examples:

ya saka riga – he put on a shirt / he wore a shirt
saka takalmi – to put on shoes
saka abu a cikin jaka – to put something in the bag

So here saka is “to put (the lid)” rather than “to wear”.

Why is it murfi and not something like “the lid” with a separate word for “the”?

Hausa does not have separate words for “a / an / the” the way English does.

murfi by itself can mean “a lid” or “the lid”, depending on context.

In this sentence, the context (a pot and boiling water) makes it clear we’re talking about “the lid (of the pot)”, even though it just says murfi.

If you wanted to be very explicit, you could say:

murfin tukunya – the lid of the pot (literally “lid-of pot”)

But in ordinary speech, murfi here is perfectly natural and is understood as “the lid”.

Can you break down idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai grammatically?

Yes, piece by piece:

idan – if / when (introduces a condition or time clause)
ruwa – water (subject noun)
y- (inside yana) – 3rd person masculine singular pronoun “he/it”
-na (inside yana) – progressive aspect marker (“is … -ing”)
yana – he/it is (doing) → here: “it is (boiling)”
tafasa – to boil
sosai – very / a lot / intensely

So idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai literally =
“when/if water it-is boiling very” → when the water is boiling hard / boiling a lot.

Why do we need yana when we already have ruwa? Why not just ruwa tafasa sosai?

In Hausa, the progressive / continuous form is usually built with a subject pronoun + aspect marker even when the noun subject is already mentioned.

Pattern: [noun subject] + [subject pronoun + aspect] + [verb]

So:

ruwa yana tafasa
- ruwa – water
- ya – it (3rd person masc. sg.)
- na – progressive
- tafasa – boil

This is just how the grammar works.

Compare:

ruwa ya tafasa – the water boiled / has boiled (simple/completed event)
ruwa yana tafasa – the water is boiling (ongoing process)

You can say ruwa tafasa in some contexts (especially headlines, notes, or very casual speech), but for a full, natural sentence describing an ongoing action, ruwa yana tafasa sosai is the normal form.

Why is it yana (masculine) and not tana (feminine)? Is ruwa masculine?

Yes, in Hausa, ruwa (water) is treated as masculine, so it takes the masculine 3rd person forms:

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

So:

ruwa yana tafasa – the water is boiling (correct)
ruwa tana tafasa – would sound wrong in standard Hausa, because the gender marking doesn’t match.

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

Idan can mean both “if” and “when/whenever”, depending on context.

In your sentence:

Uwa kan saka murfi … idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai.

This describes a regular pattern / rule. In English we would naturally say:

A mother usually puts a lid on the pot *when the water is boiling hard.*

So here idan is better understood as “when(ever)”, not a hypothetical “if”.

If the context was more hypothetical or conditional, idan would lean more toward “if”:

Idan ya zo, ka kira ni. – If/when he comes, call me.

Can I move the idan clause to the beginning: Idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai, uwa kan saka murfi a kan tukunya?

Yes, that is perfectly correct and very natural.

Both orders are fine:

Uwa kan saka murfi a kan tukunya idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai.
Idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai, uwa kan saka murfi a kan tukunya.

The meaning is the same.
Putting idan… first is often used in speech and writing, especially when you want to emphasize the condition/time first.

What does sosai add to the meaning? Could I leave it out?

Sosai is an intensifier meaning “very, a lot, intensely”.

ruwa yana tafasa – the water is boiling
ruwa yana tafasa sosai – the water is boiling hard / strongly / a lot

If you leave it out, the sentence is still correct:

Uwa kan saka murfi a kan tukunya idan ruwa yana tafasa.

But with sosai, it suggests the mother waits until the water is really boiling, not just starting to form a few bubbles.

Other intensifiers you might hear in similar places:

kwarai – very, indeed
sosai sosai – very, very (colloquial)
da yawa – a lot / in large quantity (more about amount than intensity)

Does Uwa here mean a specific mother (“the mother”) or “a mother in general”?

Uwa on its own can mean:

“a/the mother” = a specific person, depending on context, or
“(a) mother” in general = a typical mother, mothers as a type.

In this sentence, because the action is described with kan (habitual), it’s natural to understand Uwa as “a mother (in general)” – i.e. what mothers typically do.

If you wanted to be clearly specific, you might say:

uwar gida – the (female) head of the household
uwar ɗa / ’yar – the child’s mother
uwar nan – this mother, that mother

But here Uwa comfortably reads as “a mother” in a general, proverb-like sense.

Could I say the same idea in another, still-correct way in Hausa?

Yes, there are several natural variants with slightly different flavors. For example:

Uwa tana sa murfi a kan tukunya idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai.
- Using tana sa instead of kan saka.
- Still OK for a habitual meaning; sounds a bit less “rule-like” and more neutral.
Uwa kan sa murfi a kan tukunya idan ruwan ya tafasa sosai.
- kan sa instead of kan saka (shorter verb).
- ruwan ya tafasa sosai – “the water has boiled a lot / well” (more like completed boiling rather than ongoing boiling).
Idan ruwa yana tafasa sosai, uwa kan sa murfi a kan tukunya.
- Same as your sentence but with the idan clause first.

Your original sentence is already correct and natural; these are just alternative ways a native speaker might also express the same idea.