Komai yana da lokaci.

Everything has its time.

Breakdown of Komai yana da lokaci.

• da: to have
• lokaci: the time
• komai: everything

Questions & Answers about Komai yana da lokaci.

What does komai mean exactly? Is it “everything” or “anything”?

Komai is an indefinite pronoun that can mean “everything” or “anything”, depending on context.

In Komai yana da lokaci, the sense is “everything”:

• Komai yana da lokaci. = Everything has its time.

In questions or negative contexts, komai can lean more toward “anything” or “nothing”, but here, in a general statement, it’s best taken as “everything.”

Is komai treated as singular or plural in Hausa?

Grammatically, komai is treated as singular in Hausa.

That’s why the verb-like element is yana (3rd person singular masculine) and not a plural form. You can think of it as:

• Komai yana da lokaci.
  Literally: Each thing / everything (as a single set) is having time.

Even though in English we think of “everything” as many things, Hausa still uses singular agreement.

What exactly is yana doing here? Does it just mean “is”?

Yana is a combination of:

• ya = 3rd person singular masculine pronoun (he/it)
• na = a marker often used for progressive or continuous aspect

Together, in sentences like this, ya-na behaves a lot like “is/has” when used with da:

• X yana da Y ≈ “X has Y” (literally, “X is with Y”)

So in Komai yana da lokaci:

• Komai = everything
• yana = (it) is / is in a state of
• da lokaci = with time

Combined sense: “Everything has time / Everything has its time.”

Why is da translated as “has” here? Doesn’t da mean “and” or “with”?

On its own, da usually means “and” or “with.”

But in the structure X yana da Y, Hausa expresses possession:

• Ina da littafi. = I have a book. (literally “I am with a book.”)
• Gida yana da ƙofa. = The house has a door.

So in Komai yana da lokaci:

• yana da together is understood as “has”
• Literal: “Everything is with time.”
• Natural English: “Everything has its time.”

Why isn’t there an explicit “its” in Hausa, like “its time”?

Hausa usually doesn’t need to say “its” in this type of general, proverbial statement.

You could say:

• Komai yana da lokacinsa. = Everything has its time.

Here, -nsa is a possessive suffix meaning “its/his.”

But it’s very natural, especially in proverbs, to leave the possessive implicit:

• Komai yana da lokaci.
  The relationship is understood from context, so English needs “its”, but Hausa doesn’t.

Could you also say “Duk komai yana da lokaci”? What’s the difference?

You can say Duk komai yana da lokaci, and people will understand you, but it’s a bit redundant, because:

• duk = all, every
• komai = everything

So duk komai is like saying “every everything / absolutely everything.”
It can sound emphatic, but for a clean, proverb-like sentence, Komai yana da lokaci is more natural.

If you want an emphatic variant, a better one is:

• Duk abin da ake yi yana da lokaci.
  Everything that is done has its time.

Can I change the word order to say “Lokaci yana da komai”?

If you say Lokaci yana da komai, the meaning changes to:

• Lokaci yana da komai. = Time has everything.

That’s grammatically correct, but it’s not the same proverb anymore.

• Komai yana da lokaci focuses on each thing and its proper time.
• Lokaci yana da komai focuses on time and says that time possesses everything.

So, to express “Everything has its time,” you should keep the original order:
Komai yana da lokaci.

What tense or aspect is yana here? Does it mean this is always true?

Yana usually marks a continuous or ongoing state, but in Hausa it’s also widely used for general states and facts, not only “right now.”

In Komai yana da lokaci, it’s expressing a timeless general truth, much like the English present simple in proverbs:

• The sun rises in the east.
• Everything has its time.

So, even though yana is a “continuous” form, here it carries the sense of a general, always-true statement.

Is Komai yana da lokaci a common saying or proverb in Hausa?

Yes, Komai yana da lokaci functions very much like a proverb or wise saying in Hausa.

It’s used to express ideas like:

• Things happen at the right time.
• Don’t rush; everything has its proper moment.
• Be patient; what’s meant to happen will happen in its time.

It’s comparable to English sayings such as:

• Everything has its time.
• There is a time for everything.

How would you say the negative: “Not everything has its time” or “Nothing has time”?

A natural negative that keeps the proverb-like flavor is:

• Ba komai da ba shi da lokaci ba.
  Literally: There is nothing that does not have time.
  Meaning: Everything has its time. (stated in a double-negative style, very idiomatic.)

If you really want: “Not everything has its time,” you could say something like:

• Ba lallai komai yana da lokaci ba.
  = It’s not certain / not necessarily that everything has its time.

For “Nothing has time” (which is a bit odd conceptually), you might say:

• Babu komai da yake da lokaci.
  = There is nothing that has time.

How do you pronounce komai and lokaci?

Approximate pronunciation:

• komai: KO-mai

  • ko as in “co” in “cold”
  • mai like English “my”
    So: KO-my (two syllables).

• lokaci: LO-ka-chi

  • lo as in “low”
  • ka like “kah”
  • ci is pronounced “chi” in standard Hausa spelling
    So: LO-kah-chi.

The full sentence flows as:
KO-mai YA-na da LO-kah-chi.