Breakdown of Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa.
Questions & Answers about Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa.
Literally:
- sada = linking, connecting, establishing contact
- zumunta = kinship, blood/family ties, extended family relations
So sada zumunta is literally “connecting kinship” or “linking family ties”.
In natural English, it’s usually better to translate it as:
- “maintaining family/kinship ties”
- “keeping in touch with relatives”
In the sentence Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa, sada zumunta is functioning as a noun phrase (the subject of the sentence) meaning “maintaining kinship ties”.
tana da muhimmanci is a common Hausa structure for “is important / has importance”.
Breakdown:
- ta- = third person singular feminine subject marker
- -na = continuous/progressive/aspect marker
- tana = “she/it is (in a state of)”
- da = “with / possessing / has”
- muhimmanci = “importance”
So tana da muhimmanci is literally “it is with importance” or “it has importance”, which corresponds to English “it is important”.
You could say:
- Sada zumunta muhimmanci ne sosai a rayuwa.
This is understandable but sounds less natural and more bookish. Everyday, idiomatic Hausa strongly favors:
- X tana da muhimmanci sosai
(“X is very important.”)
So tana da muhimmanci is the normal, natural way to say “is important” here.
Yes, in this sentence sada zumunta is treated as grammatically feminine, so the verb takes the feminine singular form tana.
Key points:
- Hausa verbs agree in gender with the subject (masculine/feminine) in the 3rd person singular.
- Many abstract activities or verbal nouns (things like “prayer”, “friendship”, “fasting”, “marriage” as concepts) are often treated as feminine in practice.
Here, sada zumunta (the act/practice of maintaining kinship ties) is regarded as a feminine-type noun, so:
- Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci … ✅
- Sada zumunta yana da muhimmanci … ❌ (would sound odd)
You don’t always get a clear “why” for gender in Hausa (as in many languages); you usually learn gender with each noun/expression. In this case, tana is simply the correct agreement.
muhimmanci means “importance”.
Morphology and origin:
- It comes from Arabic-based vocabulary used in Hausa.
- Related to Arabic مهم (muhimm) = “important”.
- Hausa adds the nominalizing suffix -anci to form an abstract noun:
- muhimmi (adj.) = “important”
- muhimmanci (noun) = “importance”
So:
- tana da muhimmanci = “it has importance” → “it is important”
- You can also say:
- abu mai muhimmanci = “an important thing” (literally: “thing that has importance / thing of importance”)
sosai is an intensifier meaning “very”, “a lot”, “really”.
- tana da muhimmanci sosai = “it is very important” / “it is really important”.
Similar intensifiers you might hear:
- ƙwarai – very, extremely
- matuka – very much, extremely
- ainun – very much, exceedingly
Examples:
- Yana da muhimmanci ƙwarai. – It is very important indeed.
- Abu ne mai muhimmanci matuka. – It’s a very, very important matter.
In this sentence, sosai simply strengthens the statement: not just important, very important.
Literally:
- a = in / at / on
- rayuwa = life, living
So a rayuwa = “in life”.
Difference:
- a rayuwa – “in life” in a general, abstract sense.
- a cikin rayuwa – literally “in the inside of life”, often a bit more emphatic, like saying “in (one’s) life / within life itself”.
Both are correct here:
- Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa.
- Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a cikin rayuwa.
The meaning in practice is nearly the same. a rayuwa is a bit shorter and more neutral; a cikin rayuwa can sound slightly more vivid or emphatic.
Yes, Hausa word order is fairly flexible, but the default and clearest order here is:
- Sada zumunta tana da muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa.
(Subject – Verb – Complement – Adverbial)
If you say:
- Sada zumunta a rayuwa tana da muhimmanci sosai.
this is still grammatical, but it slightly changes the focus:
- Sada zumunta a rayuwa is grouped more tightly, like “kinship-tie-maintenance in life” as one chunk.
- Then tana da muhimmanci sosai comments on that whole phrase.
In everyday speech, the original order (… muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa) is more typical and flows more naturally. The version with a rayuwa moved earlier might sound a bit more stylistic or rhetorical.
In this sentence, sada zumunta functions as a noun phrase, i.e. the subject of the sentence.
Internally, it comes from a verb-based expression:
- sada = to link, to connect
- zumunta = kinship, family ties
Together they form something like “linking/maintaining kinship”. You can think of it as a verbal noun / gerund-like expression (similar to English “maintaining kinship ties” or “keeping family ties”).
So:
- Grammatically here: treat sada zumunta = “the maintaining of kinship ties” (a noun-like phrase).
- That’s why it can be the subject of tana da muhimmanci (“is important”).
Approximate pronunciation (English-friendly):
- Sada → SAH-dah
- zumunta → zoo-MOON-tah
- tana → TAH-nah
- da → dah (short, like “da” in “da-da”)
- muhimmanci → moo-HIM-man-chee
- sosai → SOH-sai (the ai like in “eye”)
- a → ah
- rayuwa → rah-YOO-wah
Put together with natural rhythm:
SAH-dah zoo-MOON-tah TAH-nah dah moo-HIM-man-chee SOH-sai ah rah-YOO-wah.
Stress in Hausa is fairly even compared to English, but English speakers often feel a light stress on the second-to-last syllable of each word.
Yes. You can also use the mai + noun pattern, which often corresponds to English “having X / characterized by X / X-ful”.
- mai muhimmanci = “important” (literally: “having importance”)
A natural equivalent would be:
- Sada zumunta abu ne mai muhimmanci sosai a rayuwa.
= “Maintaining kinship ties is a very important thing in life.”
Breakdown:
- abu = thing
- ne = copula (linking word “is” for masculine/neutral nouns)
- mai muhimmanci sosai = very important
The original tana da muhimmanci sosai is slightly more compact and direct; abu ne mai muhimmanci sosai is a bit more explicit and formal-sounding. Both are correct, and you’ll hear both patterns in real usage.