Breakdown of Uwa ta ce idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum, za mu cim ma burinmu, ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci.
Questions & Answers about Uwa ta ce idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum, za mu cim ma burinmu, ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci.
Uwa = mother
ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject marker (she) in the perfective aspect
ce = said
So “Uwa ta ce” literally means “Mother, she said”, which we translate as “Mother said”.
In Hausa, a full sentence normally needs this subject marker (na, ka, ya, ta, mun, kun, sun, etc.) before the verb. Because uwa (mother) is grammatically feminine and singular, Hausa uses ta (she) as the subject marker, even though in English we don’t repeat she after mother.
Idan most often means “if” or “when (whenever)”, depending on context:
- If we make an effort → conditional
- When(ever) we make an effort → whenever it happens
In this sentence:
idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum
if/whenever we make an effort every day / consistently
Because kullum (“every day / always”) is there, you can understand idan more like “whenever / as long as”: as long as we keep trying.
Both muka and mun are 1st person plural (“we”) perfective subject markers, but they are used in slightly different environments.
mun yi – simple statement: we did / we have done
- Mun yi ƙoƙari. – We tried / We made an effort.
muka yi – the “relative/focus” form, often used in:
- subordinate clauses (after idan, lokacin da, etc.)
- relative clauses / focus constructions
So idan muka yi ƙoƙari is very natural Hausa in a conditional clause:
- idan muka yi ƙoƙari – if/whenever we make an effort
In many everyday situations, learners will hear muka after idan; idan mun yi is also possible but sounds a bit different in nuance and is less common in this kind of proverb-like sentence.
- yi = to do / to make
- ƙoƙari = effort / attempt
So yi ƙoƙari literally is “to do effort / to make effort”, and the natural English equivalent is “to try / to make an effort”.
It’s a fixed, very common expression:
- Ka yi ƙoƙari. – Try / Make an effort.
- Sun yi ƙoƙari sosai. – They tried very hard / They made a big effort.
Kullum can mean:
- every day
- always
- all the time / constantly
Context decides which English word fits best. In this sentence:
idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum
→ if we make an effort every day / if we keep trying all the time
Both “every day” and “always/constantly” are reasonable translations; it emphasizes regular, continuous effort.
Za mu is the future marker for “we will”:
- za = future particle
- mu = “we” subject pronoun
Together: za mu = “we will / we are going to”.
Examples:
- Za mu tafi. – We will go.
- Za mu ci abinci. – We will eat food.
Cim ma means “to reach / to achieve / to attain”.
In writing, you will see two variants:
- cim ma (two words)
- cimma (one word)
They are just orthographic variants of the same verb. Both mean things like:
- cim ma buri – to achieve a goal / dream
- cim ma nasara – to achieve success
In the sentence:
za mu cim ma burinmu
→ we will achieve our goal(s).
Burinmu is made of three parts:
- buri – goal, ambition, aim
- -n – linker (genitive marker) after a vowel-ending noun
- -mu – “our” (1st person plural possessive suffix)
So:
- buri + n + mu → burinmu = “our goal / our ambition”
Other examples:
- buri + na → burina – my goal
- buri + n + ka → burinka – your (m.sg.) goal
- buri + n + su → burinsu – their goal
Here ko da is a fixed expression meaning:
- even if
- even though
- even when
It is not the same as plain ko:
- ko = or (and in some contexts whether)
- ko da = even if / even though
So:
ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci
= even if we feel frustrated sometimes.
Word by word:
- muka – we (perfective subject marker in this clause type)
- ji – to feel / to experience / to sense; to hear (very common, versatile verb)
- takaici – frustration, annoyance, disappointment (especially when things don’t go as hoped)
So muka ji takaici literally: “we felt frustration / we felt annoyed”.
In natural English: “we feel frustrated” (in a general, “whenever it happens” sense).
Literally:
- wani – a / some / a certain (indefinite determiner)
- lokaci – time
So wani lokaci literally is “some time / a certain time / one time”, but idiomatically it means:
- sometimes
- at times
- once in a while
In this sentence:
…ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci.
→ …even if we feel frustrated sometimes.
The sentence mixes past, conditional, and future to express a general truth:
- Uwa ta ce – Mother said (past, completed speech).
- idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum – if/whenever we make an effort all the time
- conditional/habitual situation.
- za mu cim ma burinmu – we will achieve our goal(s)
- future result.
- ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci – even if we feel frustrated sometimes
- another conditional/habitual situation (possible difficulty on the way).
So the structure is:
(Past) Mother said that (Conditional/Habitual) if we keep trying, (Future) we will achieve our goals, (Conditional) even if we sometimes feel frustrated.
The given order is very natural:
Uwa ta ce [idan muka yi ƙoƙari kullum], [za mu cim ma burinmu], [ko da muka ji takaici wani lokaci].
Hausa usually prefers:
- Main clause (Mother said)
- then subordinate/conditional clauses in the order that feels logical.
You could move some parts around a bit (native speakers sometimes do), but large reordering can easily sound unnatural or change the emphasis. For learning purposes, it’s best to keep this kind of structure:
Main clause + “idan…” clause + “za mu…” result + “ko da…” concession.