Learn Hardcore Hausa: Goggo ta tana dafa abinci mai kyau ga baƙi lokacin azumi da bayan azumi. - My aunt cooks good food for guests during the fast and after the fast.

a family term: Goggo = Grandma / Granny
a nickname/title for an elderly woman in the neighborhood
Grammatically it behaves like a normal noun; it’s not restricted to blood relatives, though in many contexts it does mean “my/our grandma” from context.

Why do we have ta tana together? Isn’t tana already “she is”?

In standard Hausa, you normally say Goggo tana dafa… (Grandma is cooking…).

ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (she).
tana is already ta + na, fused, meaning she is (doing).

So ta tana literally repeats the subject: she she-is cooking…
You might hear a kind of repetition in fast or colloquial speech (like “Grandma, she’s cooking…”), but in careful written Hausa you would usually write either:

Goggo tana dafa abinci…, or
Ta na dafa abinci… (often written as tana).

What tense or aspect is tana dafa? Does it mean “is cooking now” or “usually cooks”?

tana dafa is the progressive / continuous aspect, literally she is cooking.
Depending on context, it can mean:

an action happening right now: Goggo tana dafa abinci = Grandma is (currently) cooking food.
a general or habitual behavior in present-time narratives, especially when combined with a time frame like lokacin azumi (during fasting time) – so in this sentence it is close to “she cooks / she tends to cook” during and after the fast.

For a clearly habitual meaning, Hausa also uses kan + verb (e.g. Goggo kan dafa abinci… = Grandma usually cooks food…), but the progressive can cover that in context.

Why do we say dafa abinci? Isn’t dafa already “to cook”?

dafa means to cook / to boil (especially on a fire).
On its own, dafa does not specify what is being cooked, so dafa abinci literally means cook food, which is the normal, idiomatic expression.

You can sometimes drop abinci if the context already makes it obvious, but dafa abinci is a very common collocation and sounds natural, not redundant.

How does abinci mai kyau work? Why is the adjective after the noun, and what does mai do here?

In Hausa, adjectives usually follow the noun, so abinci mai kyau is literally food having goodness.

abinci = food
mai (before an adjective or noun) often means having / possessing that quality
kyau = goodness, beauty, quality
So abinci mai kyau = good food / high‑quality food / nice food.

You could also see something like kyakkyawan abinci (also “good food”), but abinci mai kyau is extremely common and straightforward.

What does ga mean in ga baƙi? Is it “for” or “to”?

In this sentence, ga introduces a beneficiary and is best translated as for:

abinci mai kyau ga baƙi = “good food for guests.”

ga can also mean to / towards / at depending on context (e.g. Na ba shi littafi ga shi – I gave him the book, here it is), but with a noun like baƙi after a verb like dafa, it normally means you are doing the action for that person/people.

You could also express “for guests” with don baƙi, but ga baƙi is very natural.

What does baƙi mean, and how is it different from bako and baki?

bako = guest (singular).
baƙi = guests (plural).
baki (with plain k, not ƙ) can mean mouth or black (color), depending on tone and context.

The letter ƙ is an emphatic consonant in Hausa; baƙi with ƙ is “guests”, while baki with k is a different word. So in this sentence baƙi clearly means guests.

How does lokacin azumi express “during the fast / fasting time”? Why is there no separate word for “during”?

lokaci means time. In the genitive (possessive) construction:

lokacin azumi = the time of fasting / the fasting time.

Hausa often uses lokacin X (or a lokacin X = “at the time of X”) to mean during X.
So instead of saying “during fasting” with a separate preposition, Hausa typically says lokacin azumi or a lokacin azumi.

Does azumi always mean Ramadan fast, or any fast?

azumi literally means fasting (religious fast).

In general: Ina yin azumi = I am fasting.
In many Muslim contexts, especially in Hausa‑speaking areas, azumi by default often refers to the Ramadan fast, unless another kind of fast is specified.

So in this sentence, lokacin azumi will typically be understood as during Ramadan, but grammatically it can mean “during (any) fasting period.”

What does da bayan azumi mean here? Why is azumi repeated?

bayan = after / beyond / behind.
bayan azumi = after the fast / after fasting.
da here is the conjunction and.

So lokacin azumi da bayan azumi means “the time of fasting and (the time) after fasting”.
Repeating azumi after bayan is natural and clear; you could also say lokacin azumi da bayan sa (“the time of the fast and after it”), using sa “it” to refer back to azumi, but the original version is perfectly normal.

Can you break down the basic word order of the whole sentence?

The sentence follows normal Hausa S–V–O–(indirect object)–(time expression) order:

Goggo ta tana dafa – subject + (repeated) subject pronoun + progressive verb: “Grandma, she is cooking”
abinci mai kyau – direct object: “good food”
ga baƙi – indirect object with ga: “for guests”
lokacin azumi da bayan azumi – time phrase: “during the fast and after the fast.”

So structurally it’s: [Grandma] [is cooking] [good food] [for guests] [during the fast and after the fast].

Is it important that tana is feminine here? What would change if the subject were male?

Yes. tana is specifically 3rd person singular feminine progressive: she is (doing).
Since Goggo is female, tana (and ta) are the matching forms.

If the subject were male (e.g. Baba “father”), you would use yana:

Baba yana dafa abinci mai kyau ga baƙi… = “Father is cooking good food for the guests…”