Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.

Yesterday was the second time that my younger sister caught malaria.

Breakdown of Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.

• ne: to be
• jiya: yesterday
• biyu: two
• ta: she
• da: that
• ƙanwa: the younger sister
• cuta: the disease
• maleriya: malaria
• karo: the time
• kamu da: to catch (a disease)

Questions & Answers about Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.

Why do we need ne in karon biyu ne? Could we just say Jiya karon biyu da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya without ne?

Ne is the copula/focus particle that links the subject and the rest of the sentence.

In Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya, the structure is roughly:

• karon biyu ne da … = it was the second time that …

Without ne, the sentence is basically missing the “was/it is” part and sounds incomplete or wrong to Hausa speakers.

So:

• ✔ Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
• ✖ Jiya karon biyu da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya. (ungrammatical / very odd)

Ne here does not mean “was” in a tense sense; it’s a copular/focus marker. The past time comes from jiya (yesterday), not from ne.

Why is it ne and not ce after karon biyu?

Hausa chooses ne or ce according to the grammatical gender (and sometimes type) of what comes before it.

• Ne is used after:

  • masculine singular nouns
  • most plurals
  • whole clauses

• Ce is used after:

  • feminine singular nouns

The noun karo (time, occasion) is grammatically masculine, so we use ne:

• karon biyu ne = it was the second time

If the head noun were feminine, you’d see ce, for example:

• rana ce = it is a day (because rana ‘day’ is feminine)

How does karon biyu express “the second time”? Is there a difference between karon biyu, karo na biyu, and sau biyu?

All three involve the idea of “two times,” but they’re used a bit differently:

• karon biyu
  Literally “the time two”. In sentences like this, it’s understood as “the second time” and is very common in speech:

  • Jiya karon biyu ne da … = Yesterday was the second time that …

• karo na biyu
  More explicitly “the second time” (ordinal form):

  • Jiya ne karo na biyu da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
    Yesterday was the second time that my younger sister caught malaria.

• sau biyu
  Means “twice / two times” as an adverb of frequency, not “the second time” in a sequence:

  • Ta taɓa kamuwa da maleriya sau biyu.
    She has had malaria twice.

So:

• karon biyu / karo na biyu → “the second time (this has happened)”
• sau biyu → “twice / on two occasions (in total)”

What exactly is da doing in ne da ƙanwata ta kamu …? Is it the same da as in ta kamu da cutar maleriya?

In this sentence da appears twice, with two slightly different functions:

1. karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu …
   Here da links karon biyu to the clause ƙanwata ta kamu …. It works like English “that/when”:

   • karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu …
     ≈ it was the second time that my younger sister caught …

2. ta kamu da cutar maleriya
   Here da is the usual preposition “with/by” used with kamu to mean “to catch (an illness)”:

   • ya kamu da zazzabi = he caught a fever
   • ta kamu da cutar maleriya = she caught malaria

So it’s the same word da, but:

• first da = clause linker (“that, when”)
• second da = preposition “with/by” in the idiom kamu da (cuta)

In ƙanwata ta kamu, why is ta used twice – once inside ƙanwata and again as a separate ta? Are they related?

They are different ta’s:

1. ƙanwata

   • ƙanwa = younger sister
   • -ta = “my” after a feminine noun
     → ƙanwata = my younger sister

2. ta (separate word)
   This is the 3rd person feminine singular subject pronoun:

   • ta kamu = she caught / she became affected

So ƙanwata ta kamu literally breaks down as:

• ƙanwata = my younger sister
• ta = she
• kamu = caught / was struck (by an illness)

In Hausa you still use the subject pronoun after a possessed noun:

• Ɗan uwana ya zo. = My brother came.
• ƙanwata ta kamu. = My younger sister caught (it).

How do we know this happened in the past? Ta kamu by itself could look like “she catches”, so where is the past tense?

Hausa doesn’t mark past tense the same way English does. Two key points:

1. Ta kamu is in the perfective aspect

   • It describes a completed event: she caught / she became affected.
   • By default, perfective often refers to a past, completed action.

2. Actual time (past, present, future) is usually made clear by:

   • context, and/or
   • time words like jiya (yesterday), yau (today), gobe (tomorrow), etc.

So:

• Ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
  could be She has caught malaria / She caught malaria, depending on context.
• Jiya ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
  clearly Yesterday she caught malaria.

In your sentence, jiya fixes it in the past:
ta kamu = she caught (yesterday).

Could we say this as “Yesterday my younger sister caught malaria for the second time” with karon biyu (or karo na biyu) at the end? Is that normal in Hausa?

Yes, that’s a normal alternative word order. For example:

• Jiya ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya karo na biyu.
  Yesterday my younger sister caught malaria for the second time.

This version:

• keeps jiya at the front
• has the main clause ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya
• adds karo na biyu (for the second time) at the end as a kind of frequency phrase.

Compared to your original:

• Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
  puts more emphasis on “the second time” as the main point (“Yesterday was the second time that …”).

Both are correct; they just highlight different things:

• original: focus on “the second time”
• alternative: focus more neutrally on the event “my younger sister caught malaria,” mentioning “for the second time” afterward

Why do we say cutar maleriya instead of just maleriya?

Cutar maleriya literally means “the disease malaria”:

• cuta = disease, illness
• cutar = the disease / disease-of (with linker, see next question)
• maleriya = malaria

So cutar maleriya = the disease of malaria / the malaria disease.

In everyday speech, people also say simply:

• Ta kamu da maleriya. = She caught malaria.

Adding cuta can:

• make it sound a bit more explicit or formal
• emphasise that it’s an illness (not, say, just the name of something else)

What is the little -r in cutar doing?

The -r in cutar is the genitive linker. Hausa normally inserts a linker between a head noun and the noun that follows it (possessor, modifier, etc.).

For feminine nouns ending in -a, the linker typically appears as -r or -ar:

• cuta + r + maleriya → cutar maleriya = the disease of malaria
• mota + r + yaro → motar yaro = the boy’s car

For a masculine noun like gida (house), you see -n/-in:

• gida + n + malam → gidan malam = the teacher’s house

So cutar is just cuta with the linker added because it is followed by another noun (maleriya).

How is ƙ in ƙanwata pronounced, and how is it different from a normal k?

Hausa distinguishes between:

• k = a regular voiceless [k] sound (as in English “ski”)
• ƙ = an implosive [ɓ-like k], produced with a slight inward movement of air

Practical tips for ƙ:

• It often sounds a bit “heavier” or more “swallowed” than k.
• You keep the back of your tongue in almost the same place as for k, but you pull slightly inward as you release it.

Pairs that contrast k and ƙ:

• karo (times, occasions) vs ƙaro (different word)
• kasa (ground, soil) vs ƙasa (country)
• kafa (leg, foot) vs ƙafa (to establish, to found)

In ƙanwata, it must be ƙ, not k; changing it would either sound wrong or become a different (or non-)word.

Can you break down the whole sentence word by word with literal meanings?

Sure:

• Jiya = yesterday
• karon = the time / the occasion (karo = time/occurrence + -n definiteness/linker)
• biyu = two
• ne = copula/focus particle (“it is/was”) after a masculine noun
• da = here: linker meaning “that/when”
• ƙanwata = my younger sister (ƙanwa = younger sister, -ta = my (after feminine noun))
• ta = she (3rd person feminine singular, perfective subject pronoun)
• kamu = was caught / was struck / caught (an illness)
• da = with/by (preposition used with kamu)
• cutar = the disease (of) (cuta = disease + -r linker)
• maleriya = malaria

Very literal rendering:

• Jiya karon biyu ne da ƙanwata ta kamu da cutar maleriya.
  = Yesterday it was the time-two that my younger sister got-caught with the disease malaria.

Natural English:

• Yesterday was the second time that my younger sister caught malaria.