Learn Hardcore Hausa: Kawu na yana zaune a birni, amma yana zuwa ƙauye lokacin azumi. - My uncle lives in the city, but he comes to the village during the fasting period.

Note that in writing you may also see it joined as kawuna; both kawu na and kawuna are used in practice. Context normally supplies whether English should translate it as simply uncle or more specifically maternal uncle.

What is the function of “na” in “Kawu na”? Is it always written separately?

Here na is a possessive pronoun meaning “my”.

Hausa has a set of short possessive words that come after the noun:

kawu na – my uncle
gidana / gida na – my house
motarka / mota ka – your (m.sg.) car
littafinsa / littafi nsa – his book

In modern spelling, the possessive can appear:

Attached: kawuna, gidana
Separated: kawu na, gida na

Both are understood; which is preferred depends on the style or textbook. The key point is that na here does not mean “of” (as in “man of the house”); in this position it’s simply “my.”

Why do we say “yana zaune” and not just “ya zauna” if the meaning is “he lives / he is living in the city”?

Hausa uses different forms to show aspect (ongoing, completed, habitual):

ya zauna
- Literally “he sat / he settled.”
- This is more like a completed action (perfective): He sat down / he settled (at some point).
yana zaune
- Literally “he is sitting / he is in a sitting state,” and by extension “he is residing.”
- This expresses a current state or ongoing situation: He lives / he is living (there).

In your sentence:

Kawu na yana zaune a birni
- Means “My uncle lives in the city” or “My uncle is living in the city (now).”

Using ya zauna a birni would sound more like you are talking about the event of him having moved/settled in the city, not just describing where he (now) lives.

Is “zaune” a verb? How does “yana zaune” work grammatically?

Zaune is the verbal noun / stative form of the verb zauna (“to sit, to stay, to reside”).

The structure is:

yana (he is [doing/being]) + verbal noun / stative form

So:

ya
- na → yana (“he is” – progressive/habitual marker)
zaune – sitting / in a state of being seated / resident

Together:

yana zaune = he is in the state of sitting / he is residing

This same pattern appears with lots of verbs:

yana karatu – he is reading / he studies
suna wasan ƙwallo – they are playing football
tana aiki – she is working

So yana zaune fits that same “subject + (yà)na + verbal noun” pattern, but with a verb that can mean both “sit” and “reside.”

Why is the preposition “a” used in “a birni” and what does it correspond to in English?

A is a very common Hausa preposition and here it means roughly “in / at”.

a birni → in the city / in a city
a gida → at home
a makaranta → at school
a kasuwa → in the market

Hausa does not use separate words for “a” and “the” like English does, so a birni can mean either “in a city” or “in the city”; context decides which sounds more natural in English.

If you want to emphasize “inside,” you can add ciki:

a cikin birni – in(side) the city, within the city (stronger sense of “inside”).

Does “birni” mean “city” or “town”? How specific is it?

Birni means city, in contrast to ƙauye (village, rural area).

birni – city, urban area
ƙauye – village, countryside

In natural English, depending on the size of the place and context, you might translate birni as either “city” or “town,” but in Hausa it carries the idea of an urban center, opposite of the rural village.

The sentence is setting up an urban vs rural contrast:

… a birni, amma yana zuwa ƙauye …
→ in the city, but he goes to the village / countryside…

What does “amma” do in the sentence, and where does it go?

Amma means “but” / “however” and introduces a contrast.

In the sentence:

Kawu na yana zaune a birni, amma yana zuwa ƙauye lokacin azumi.

The contrast is:

Clause 1: He lives in the city
Clause 2: But he goes to the village during Ramadan

Position:

Amma usually comes at the start of the contrasting clause, just like but in English:
- Yana son birni, amma ni ban so ba.
  – He likes the city, but I don’t.

You can also see variants like amma dai, amma fa, for extra nuance, but amma alone is the basic “but.”

Does “yana zuwa ƙauye” mean “he is going to the village (right now)” or “he goes to the village (regularly)”?

Yana zuwa ƙauye by itself is ambiguous between:

Progressive: he is going to the village (now / these days)
Habitual: he goes to the village (regularly / usually)

In your sentence, the time phrase lokacin azumi (“during the fasting period / during Ramadan”) pushes the meaning toward a repeated habit:

… amma yana zuwa ƙauye lokacin azumi.
→ “but he goes to the village during Ramadan.”

If you wanted to clearly show a habit in Hausa, another very common pattern is:

Yana zuwa ƙauye duk lokacin azumi. – He goes to the village every Ramadan.
Yakan je ƙauye lokacin azumi. – He usually goes to the village during Ramadan. (using kan je for habitual)

Why is it “ƙauye” and not something like “ƙauyen” with -n on the end?

Ƙauye is the basic noun “village.”

The -n / -r you’re thinking of is the genitive/linker suffix that appears when the noun is followed by another noun or certain modifiers:

ƙauyenmu – our village (ƙauye + n + mu)
ƙauyen nan – this village
ƙauyen da muka je – the village that we went to

In yana zuwa ƙauye, ƙauye stands alone as the direct object of zuwa (“to, towards”), so there is no genitive/linker needed:

zuwa ƙauye – to (a/the) village
zuwa ƙauyenmu – to our village
zuwa ƙauyen nan – to this village

So ƙauye here is just an indefinite “village”; context tells us whether English should say the village or a village.

What is the structure of “lokacin azumi”, and why isn’t there a preposition like “during”?

Lokacin azumi is a noun–noun (genitive) construction, literally:

lokaci – time
-n – genitive linker (“of”)
azumi – fasting

So lokacin azumi = “time of fasting.”

In English we often say “during fasting / during Ramadan”, but Hausa frequently just uses “time of X” without an extra preposition:

lokacin sanyi – cold season / in the cold season
lokacin rana – daytime
lokacin girbi – harvest time

You can add a separate preposition for clarity or emphasis:

a lokacin azumi – at the time of fasting / during Ramadan

Both lokacin azumi and a lokacin azumi can translate naturally as “during Ramadan” in this kind of sentence.

Does “azumi” mean any kind of fasting, or specifically Ramadan?

Literally, azumi means “fasting.” It can refer to any religious fast.

However, in everyday Muslim Hausa usage, when people say azumi without qualification, they very often mean Ramadan specifically, because that is the main and most important fasting period in the year.

So depending on context:

yin azumi – to fast (in general)
azumin Litinin – Monday’s fast
azumin Ramadana – the fast of Ramadan
lokacin azumi – the fasting period; usually understood as Ramadan unless there’s a reason to think otherwise.

In the sentence you gave, an average listener would understand lokacin azumi to mean “during Ramadan.”

Could I say “Kawu na ya kan je ƙauye lokacin azumi” instead? What’s the difference from “yana zuwa ƙauye”?

Yes, you can say:

Kawu na ya kan je ƙauye lokacin azumi.

Here:

ya kan je is a habitual construction:
- ya – he (3rd person masculine)
- kan – habitual marker
- je – go

So:

ya kan je ƙauye → he usually/regularly goes to the village.

Difference in nuance:

yana zuwa ƙauye
- Can be ongoing (“is going these days”) or habitual (“goes”). Context decides.
- Slightly more neutral/aspectual.
ya kan je ƙauye
- Very clearly habitual: a repeated, usual action.
- Often translated as “he tends to go / he usually goes / he normally goes.”

Both forms are correct; ya kan je removes the ambiguity and strongly highlights the regular, repeated nature of the action.

What is the sound represented by “ƙ” in “ƙauye”, and how is it different from “k”?

In Hausa spelling:

k and ƙ represent two different consonants.

A normal voiceless [k] sound (like English k).
Example: kafa (leg), kasa (country/ground).

An “ejective” or “glottalized” [kʼ] sound.
Pronounced with a little “pop” or burst; the glottis closes briefly.
Example: ƙauye (village), ƙofa (door), ƙasa (ground/earth – in some dialects distinct from kasa).

For many learners, it’s enough initially just to notice the spelling difference and try to pronounce ƙ a bit more forcefully or with a slight popping quality. Over time, your ear will become more sensitive to the contrast.

Why doesn’t Hausa use words like “the” or “a” in this sentence? How do we know if it’s “the city” or “a city,” “the village” or “a village”?

Hausa does not have separate definite and indefinite articles like English “the” and “a/an.”

Nouns such as birni and ƙauye are inherently neutral; they can be translated as “a city / the city”, “a village / the village” depending on context.

In your sentence:

Kawu na yana zaune a birni
→ My uncle lives in the city (most natural, because we’re contrasting city vs village).
amma yana zuwa ƙauye lokacin azumi
→ but he goes *to the village during Ramadan*
(we assume a specific village he habitually visits, though Hausa leaves it unsaid).

If a speaker wants to make definiteness more explicit, they may:

Use possessives: ƙauyenmu – our village
Use demonstratives: birnin nan – this city
Use previous context to make it clear.

But grammatically, the sentence is correct as-is; the “the / a” choice comes in only when you translate into English.