Uwa ta ce tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

Mother said that compassion for the sick is a good act of worship.

Breakdown of Uwa ta ce tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

• ne: to be
• mai kyau: good
• ga: for
• uwa: the mother
• ce: to say
• tausayi: the compassion
• marar lafiya: the sick person
• ibada: the worship

Questions & Answers about Uwa ta ce tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

What is the word‑for‑word breakdown of Uwa ta ce tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau?

Roughly:

• Uwa – mother
• ta – she (3rd person singular feminine subject marker, past)
• ce – said
• tausayi – compassion, pity
• ga – to / for (preposition marking the target/recipient)
• marasa lafiya – sick people, the sick (literally: those without health)
• ibada – worship, (religious) devotion, act of worship
• ce – is (copula agreeing with a feminine noun)
• mai kyau – good (literally: “having goodness / beauty”)

So the structure is: Mother she‑said [compassion to sick‑people] [worship is good].

Why do we have both Uwa and ta? Aren’t they both “she”?

In Hausa, even when you mention the noun Uwa (mother), you still normally use a subject pronoun before the verb.

• Uwa ta ce = Mother she‑said → “Mother said.”

The ta here is not redundant; it is the normal way to mark the subject (3rd person feminine, past) on the verb. Hausa verbs almost always take these subject markers, even if the noun subject is already expressed.

Could I say “Mother said that compassion for the sick is a good act of worship”? Where is “that” in Hausa?

English often uses that to introduce reported speech or a clause. Hausa can use a similar word, cewa, but it is often omitted in everyday speech.

• With cewa:

  • Uwa ta ce cewa tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.
  • Literally: Mother said that compassion for the sick is a good act of worship.

• Without cewa (your sentence):

  • Uwa ta ce tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

Both are correct; omitting cewa is very natural and common.

Is the ce in ta ce (“she said”) the same word as the ce in ibada ce mai kyau (“is”)?

They are written the same but function differently:

1. In ta ce:

   • ce is part of the verb “to say” (related to cewa = “to say / that”).
   • So ta ce = she said.

2. In ibada ce mai kyau:

   • ce is the copula / focus particle, basically meaning “is” and agreeing with a feminine noun.
   • Here it links ibada (worship) to the description mai kyau (good).

So they sound and look the same, but one is a full verb (said), and the other is the particle that plays the role of “is” with feminine words. Context tells you which is which.

Why is it ibada ce and not ibada ne?

Hausa uses ce and ne as copula/focus particles, and one of the main differences is gender:

• ce is used with feminine nouns.
• ne is used with masculine or unspecified nouns.

The noun ibada (worship) is grammatically feminine, so you say:

• ibada ce mai kyau – it (feminine) is good worship / a good act of worship.

If the subject were masculine, you would use ne, e.g.:

• aiki ne mai kyau – it is a good work/deed.

What exactly does tausayi mean, and is it a noun or a verb?

Tausayi is a noun. It means:

• compassion
• pity
• sympathy / feeling sorry for someone

In this sentence it behaves like an abstract noun, just like “compassion” in English:

• tausayi ga marasa lafiya – compassion for the sick.

If you want the verb “to feel compassion / to pity,” you’d typically use tausayawa or patterns with a verb plus tausayi, but tausayi itself here is a plain noun.

What does ga do in tausayi ga marasa lafiya? Could I leave it out?

Ga is a preposition that often corresponds to “to / for” in English. Here it marks the target of the compassion:

• tausayi ga marasa lafiya – literally “compassion to/for sick people.”

If you drop ga, the phrase becomes odd or unclear. You would normally say either:

• tausayi ga marasa lafiya – compassion for the sick, or
• tausayin marasa lafiya – compassion of/for the sick (genitive form; see below).

So you shouldn’t just delete ga here; it’s doing real grammatical work.

Could I say tausayin marasa lafiya instead of tausayi ga marasa lafiya?

Yes, that is another natural way to express almost the same idea:

• tausayi ga marasa lafiya – compassion for the sick (using the preposition ga).
• tausayin marasa lafiya – compassion for/of the sick (genitive/possessive construction: compassion of the sick).

Both are correct. Tausayi ga… feels a bit more like directed compassion towards them, while tausayin marasa lafiya is more like a fixed noun phrase “the compassion for the sick”. In many contexts, they are interchangeable.

What does marasa lafiya literally mean, and why is it plural?

Marasa lafiya is a set phrase meaning “sick people / the sick / patients.”

Literally:

• mara lafiya – “one without health” → a sick person
• marasa lafiya – “those without health” → sick people

So marasa is the plural form of mara, and lafiya means health, well‑being, peace. In this sentence, we’re talking generally about sick people, so the plural marasa lafiya is used.

Could I use mara lafiya instead of marasa lafiya here?

You could if you wanted to talk about one sick person:

• tausayi ga mara lafiya – compassion for a sick person / the sick person.

But your sentence is more general – “the sick” in general, not one specific individual. For that general meaning, Hausa uses the plural:

• marasa lafiya – sick people, the sick (as a group).

So for the intended general sense, marasa lafiya is the better choice.

Is there a separate verb “to be” in this sentence, or is ce the only marker for “is”?

Hausa usually does not use a full verb like English “to be.” Instead, it uses particles like ne/ce (and sometimes just word order) to express “is/are.”

In ibada ce mai kyau:

• ibada – worship
• ce – is (feminine copula/focus)
• mai kyau – good

So ce is the element that corresponds to English “is” here. There is no extra verb “to be.”

Why is the order tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau and not something like ibada ce mai kyau tausayi ga marasa lafiya?

The main structure is:

• [Subject] – tausayi ga marasa lafiya – compassion for the sick
• [Predicate] – ibada ce mai kyau – is a good act of worship.

So the sentence is basically:

• Compassion for the sick = is a good act of worship.

Putting tausayi ga marasa lafiya first presents it as the topic / subject, and ibada ce mai kyau tells you what kind of thing it is. Reversing it would change the focus and sound unnatural in this context.

What does mai kyau mean? Can I just think of it as “good”?

Yes, in most contexts you can understand mai kyau as “good / nice / beautiful / fine.”

Literally:

• mai – one who has / that which has
• kyau – beauty, goodness

So mai kyau is “having goodness/beauty,” which functions like an adjective meaning good / beautiful / nice. In your sentence, ibada ce mai kyau is “it is a good act of worship.”

How else could I say “Compassion for the sick is a good act of worship” in Hausa while keeping the same idea?

A few natural alternatives (all close in meaning) are:

• Uwa ta ce tausayin marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

  • Using tausayin marasa lafiya instead of tausayi ga marasa lafiya.

• Uwa ta ce taimakon marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

  • taimako = help; this shifts the nuance slightly toward helping the sick.

• Uwa ta ce kulawa da marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau.

  • kulawa da = caring for / looking after.

All of them keep the same general message: caring for sick people is a valuable religious act.

Does using ibada here have any special religious or cultural nuance?

Yes. Ibada is a religiously loaded word in Hausa (from Arabic ʿibāda):

• It means worship, devotion, religious service/duty.
• It usually implies acts done for God’s sake, not just “a good deed.”

So saying tausayi ga marasa lafiya ibada ce mai kyau doesn’t only mean “it’s a nice thing to do,” but more like:

• This is a good form of worship / a good religious act,
  implying spiritual or moral reward, not just social kindness.