Uwa ta ce tana so ki nuna tarbiya a gaban baƙi.

to be

Breakdown of Uwa ta ce tana so ki nuna tarbiya a gaban baƙi.

• so: to want
• nuna: to show
• uwa: the mother

Questions & Answers about Uwa ta ce tana so ki nuna tarbiya a gaban baƙi.

In Uwa ta ce…, does uwa mean mother in general, or specifically my mother / the mother?

Uwa is the common noun mother. On its own it can mean:

• a/the mother in a neutral way, or
• Mum / my mother in everyday speech, when it’s clear from context (like using “Mum” as a name in English).

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

• uwata or uwa ta – my mother
• uwar sa – his mother
• uwar ta – her mother

In many real-life contexts, Uwa ta ce… is naturally understood as Mum said… about your own mother.

What exactly is ta ce doing here, and why is the order ta ce (she said) and not ce ta?

Ta ce is:

• ta – 3rd person singular feminine subject marker (she)
• ce – verb to say

So ta ce = she said.

Hausa word order in a normal verb clause is Subject marker + Verb, so:

• ta ce = she said
• ya ce = he said
• sun ce = they said

Putting ce ta would be ungrammatical in this context. (There is another ce used as a copula, but that’s a different function and not what’s happening here.)

What does tana in ta ce tana so… actually mean?