Learn Hardcore Hausa: Mu kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro. - We usually use only one knife in the kitchen for safety.

Mu kan yi amfani… ≈ “We usually use…” / “We tend to use…”
Word order: Subject + kan + verb
- Ni kan tafi. – I usually go.
- Yara kan yi wasa. – Children usually play.

So mu (“we”) comes first as the subject, and kan follows it to show the action is a habit, not a one‑time event.

What is yi amfani da? Where is the verb “to use” in Hausa?

Hausa often uses a light verb plus a verbal noun instead of a single verb like “use”.

yi = to do / to make
amfani = use, benefit, usefulness (a noun)
da = with

Together, yi amfani da X literally means “do use with X”, and functions as the verb “to use X”:

Mu kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai…
→ “We usually use only one knife…”

Other common patterns like this:

yin magana – to speak (do speech)
yin aiki – to work (do work)
yin wasa – to play (do play)

Could I say mu kan yi wuƙa ɗaya kawai and still mean “we usually use one knife”?

No. Yi on its own does not mean “use” here.

mu kan yi wuƙa ɗaya kawai would sound like “we usually do/make one knife only”, which is wrong.

To say “use a knife”, you need the full expression yi amfani da:

✅ mu kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai – we usually use only one knife
❌ mu kan yi wuƙa ɗaya kawai – ungrammatical in this meaning

What exactly does wuƙa ɗaya kawai mean, and can I move kawai?

Breakdown:

wuƙa – a knife
ɗaya – one
kawai – only / just

So wuƙa ɗaya kawai = “only one knife” or “one knife only”.

Word order is typically:

Noun + Number + kawai

Examples:

littafi ɗaya kawai – only one book
yaro biyu kawai – only two boys

You can sometimes move kawai for emphasis in other contexts, but for a simple, neutral phrase “only one knife”, wuƙa ɗaya kawai is the natural order. Forms like kawai wuƙa ɗaya in this sentence would sound odd or marked.

What does a ɗakin girki literally mean, and how is ɗakin girki formed?

a ɗakin girki means “in the kitchen”.

Breakdown:

a – preposition: in / at / on (here: “in”)
ɗaki – room
girki – cooking; by extension, “kitchen” in compounds
ɗakin girki = ɗaki + -n + girki
- -n is the linking/genitive particle (“room of cooking”)

So literally:

a ɗakin girki = “in the cooking room” → “in the kitchen”

Could I say a cikin ɗakin girki instead of a ɗakin girki?

Yes, and the meaning is very close.

a ɗakin girki – in the kitchen (neutral)
a cikin ɗakin girki – literally “in the inside of the kitchen”, often felt a bit more explicit: inside the kitchen

Both are correct. a cikin… emphasizes being inside something, but in everyday speech the difference here is small.

What does domin tsaro mean, and how is it different from don tsaro or saboda tsaro?

domin tsaro expresses purpose or reason:

domin tsaro = “for safety” / “for the sake of safety” / “in order to be safe”

Variants:

don tsaro – shortened, very common in speech; same meaning.
saboda tsaro – “because of safety / for the sake of safety”; can sound a bit more like “because of” than “in order to”, depending on context.

In this sentence, domin tsaro is nicely translated as “for safety” or “for safety reasons.”

Why do we need the pronoun mu? Can the sentence start with kan yi amfani da…?

You must have a subject in Hausa; you can’t drop it the way you sometimes can in languages like Spanish.

mu = we
kan follows the subject to mark habit.

Correct pattern:

Mu kan yi amfani da… – We usually use…

Wrong / incomplete:

❌ Kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai… – missing the subject “we”.

Except for true imperatives (commands), Hausa verbs don’t appear without a subject pronoun or noun phrase.

How would I say this in the past or future instead of “usually”?

To change the time reference, you mainly change the Tense/Aspect marker, not the rest of the sentence.

Habitual (given sentence):
Mu kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro.
→ We usually use only one knife in the kitchen for safety.
Simple past (one specific occasion):
Mun yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro.
→ We used only one knife in the kitchen for safety.
Future:
Za mu yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro.
→ We will use only one knife in the kitchen for safety.

So kan (habitual) is replaced by mun (past) or za mu (future), while yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro stays largely the same.

How do I make this sentence negative?

Negation wraps the clause in ba … ba and keeps kan:

Ba mu kan yi amfani da wuƙa ɗaya kawai a ɗakin girki domin tsaro ba.
→ “We don’t usually use only one knife in the kitchen for safety.”

Structure:

Ba + subject + kan + verb phrase + ba

Another example:

Ba su kan ci nama ba. – They don’t usually eat meat.

How are ƙ and ɗ pronounced, and do they matter for meaning?

Yes, they matter a lot; they are different consonants from k and d.

ƙ – a glottalized/implosive k sound, pronounced deeper in the throat.
ɗ – a glottalized/implosive d sound.

Minimal contrasts exist:

ɗaki – room
daki – (without dot) can be interpreted differently or just seen as a spelling mistake.
wuƙa – knife
wuka – would be read as something else or incorrect.

So in wuƙa and ɗakin girki, the dots under the letters are essential to get the right pronunciation and meaning.

Is there any word for “the” here, like “the kitchen” or “the knife”?

Hausa does not have a direct equivalent of the English articles “a/an/the”.

Definiteness is usually understood from:

Context
Structure (like possessives or genitive/linker constructions)

In ɗakin girki (“kitchen”), the phrase is naturally understood as “the kitchen” in context, not “a kitchen”, even though there’s no separate word for “the”.

Similarly, wuƙa ɗaya kawai is “only one knife”; whether that is a particular knife or any one knife is taken from context, not from an article word.