Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

The doctor said we should bring the patient immediately.

Breakdown of Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

• mu: we
• ce: to say
• kawo: to bring
• likita: the doctor
• mara lafiya: the patient
• cikin gaggawa: in an emergency

Questions & Answers about Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

What is the word‑for‑word breakdown of Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa?

Here is a fairly literal breakdown:

• Likita – doctor
• ya – he (3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun, perfective/completive aspect)
• ce – said
• mu – we (1st person plural subject pronoun in the subjunctive / “should” form)
• kawo – bring
• mara lafiya – sick person / patient (literally: one who is without health)
• cikin – in, within
• gaggawa – haste, urgency

So structurally it is something like:
Doctor he-said we bring person-without-health in haste.

What does ya do here, and why is it ya and not something else?

Ya is the 3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun in the completive (perfective) aspect. It tells you:

• who did the action: he (in this sentence, the doctor), and
• what aspect/tense: a completed action, usually translated as simple past in English.

So:

• Likita ya ce – The doctor said
  
  • Likita = doctor (the noun)
  • ya = he (the pronoun that “agrees” with Likita)
  • ce = said

If the subject were feminine, you would use ta instead of ya:

• Likita ta ce could be The (female) doctor said (if you want to make the gender explicit).

Where is the word for “should” in this sentence?

Hausa does not use a separate word like English “should”. Instead, it uses a special verb form (the subjunctive or modal form) with special subject pronouns.

In mu kawo:

• mu here is not just “we”; it is the 1st person plural subjunctive marker.
• kawo is the verb “bring” in its basic form.

So mu kawo is best translated as “we should bring” or “let’s bring”, depending on context. The idea of obligation / recommendation (what “should” expresses in English) is built into this mu + verb construction, not a separate word.

What is the exact function of mu in mu kawo?

Mu here:

• marks the subject (“we”), and
• marks the mood: the subjunctive / hortative, which often corresponds to “should” or “let us” in English.

Compare:

• mun kawo mara lafiya – we brought the patient (completed past; mun = we + completive)
• mu kawo mara lafiya – we should bring / let’s bring the patient (subjunctive / non‑past with a modal sense)

So in Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya, the structure is:

• ya ce – he said
• mu kawo – that we should bring

You could think of mu here loosely as “(that) we should …”

Why isn’t there a word for “that” (as in “said that we should bring…”)? Where is “that” in Hausa?

English often needs “that” to introduce reported speech:

• The doctor said *that we should bring the patient…*

In Hausa, you can use cewa for “that,” but you don’t have to. Both are correct:

1. Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.
2. Likita ya ce cewa mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

Sentence 1 just connects ce directly with the following clause (mu kawo…). Sentence 2 explicitly inserts cewa = “that.”

In everyday speech, people very often drop cewa, so your sentence without “that” is completely normal and natural.

Why doesn’t the sentence say “mu kawo shi” (we should bring him)? Where is the object pronoun?

In this sentence, the object is expressed by the noun phrase:

• mara lafiya – the patient / sick person

Because the object is already clearly named (mara lafiya), you don’t add a separate object pronoun like shi (him), ta (her), etc.

You would use kawo shi when the object is already known and pronominal:

• Likita ya ce mu kawo shi cikin gaggawa.
  The doctor said we should bring him urgently.

Here, shi refers back to someone already mentioned.

In your original sentence, mara lafiya itself is the object, so no pronoun is needed or expected.

What exactly does mara lafiya mean, and how do you make it plural?

Mara lafiya is a common way to say “sick person / patient.”

Literally:

• mara – someone who lacks / is without something
• lafiya – health, well‑being, peace

Put together: mara lafiya = “one without health” → sick person.

For the plural, mara becomes marasa:

• marasa lafiya – sick people / patients

Examples:

• An kawo mara lafiya. – A patient was brought.
• An kawo marasa lafiya. – Patients were brought.

So mara lafiya is a set phrase that you’ll hear constantly in medical or everyday contexts.

Hausa doesn’t have articles like “a” or “the.” So is mara lafiya “a patient” or “the patient”?

Hausa has no definite or indefinite articles like a/an/the. The same noun phrase:

• mara lafiya

can correspond to English:

• a patient, the patient, or just “the (sick) person”, depending entirely on context.

In your sentence, in normal context:

• Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

would typically be understood as:

• The doctor said we should bring *the patient urgently.*

because everyone in the situation usually knows which specific patient is meant.

What does cikin gaggawa literally mean, and why does it translate as “urgently”?

Literally:

• cikin – in, inside, within
• gaggawa – haste, urgency

So cikin gaggawa is literally “in haste / within urgency.”

Idiomatic meaning: “with urgency, urgently, in a hurry.”

It’s a very common fixed phrase. Some near synonyms / alternatives:

• da gaggawa – also “urgently, with haste”
• nan da nan – “immediately, right away” (more about time than manner)

So in your sentence:

• …mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.
  → …the patient urgently / in an urgent manner.

Is the word order Likita ya ce mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa fixed, or can parts move around?

The basic structure here is:

1. Subject + completive verb of saying
   
   • Likita ya ce – The doctor said
2. Subordinate clause (what he said)
   
   • mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa – that we should bring the patient urgently

Inside the mu kawo… clause, the usual order is:

• Subject (mu) → Verb (kawo) → Object (mara lafiya) → Adverbial (cikin gaggawa)

You can sometimes move an adverbial for emphasis, but the given order is the most neutral and natural. For a learner, it’s safest to keep:

• mu + VERB + OBJECT + (adverbials)

So:

• mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa
  is better than something like
• mu cikin gaggawa kawo mara lafiya (which sounds awkward).

Could you also say Likita ya ce a kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa? What is the difference from mu kawo?

Yes, that’s a very natural variant:

• Likita ya ce a kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

Here a kawo is an impersonal / passive‑like construction:

• a + verb ≈ “that (someone) should bring / that it should be brought”

Differences:

• mu kawo – explicitly says “we” should bring the patient.
  
  • The doctor said *we should bring the patient urgently.*
• a kawo – leaves the subject unspecified; it just means “(someone) should bring the patient” or “the patient should be brought.”

So the original sentence assigns the duty specifically to “us”, while a kawo could be understood more generally as a command to whoever is responsible.

Does ya ce have to be past tense “said”? How would you say “The doctor says we should bring the patient urgently”?

Ya ce is typically completive/past in context, so it usually corresponds to “said” (though Hausa aspect isn’t always identical to English tense).

To express something like “The doctor says…” (present/ongoing habit or current statement), Hausa often uses a progressive or a simple present form of ce:

Common ways:

1. Likita yana cewa mu kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

   • The doctor is saying / says that we should bring the patient urgently.

2. In some contexts, you can still use ya ce if the focus is on the fact that he has issued that instruction (even if it still applies now). But for a straightforward present‑tense “says,” yana cewa is clearer for learners.

So:

• ya ce – he said (completed speech act)
• yana cewa – he is saying / he says (ongoing/regular).

If I wanted to say “The doctor said I should bring the patient urgently,” how would I change the sentence?

You only need to change the subject pronoun in the subordinate clause from mu (we) to in / na (I, in subjunctive form):

• Likita ya ce in kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.
  or (in some dialects / styles)
• Likita ya ce na kawo mara lafiya cikin gaggawa.

Here:

• in / na – 1st person singular subjunctive (“that I should …”)
• kawo – bring

So the pattern is:

• ya ce mu kawo… – he said we should bring…
• ya ce in/na kawo… – he said I should bring…
• ya ce ka kawo… – he said you (sg.) should bring…
• ya ce su kawo… – he said they should bring…

The meaning of the rest of the sentence stays the same.