Famfo ya lalace jiya, don haka ba mu yi wanki ba.

The tap broke yesterday, so we did not do the laundry.

Breakdown of Famfo ya lalace jiya, don haka ba mu yi wanki ba.

• ba … ba: not
• jiya: yesterday
• yi: to do
• mu: we

Questions & Answers about Famfo ya lalace jiya, don haka ba mu yi wanki ba.

Why is it ya lalace with ya after famfo?

Because ya is the subject marker used here for a third-person singular masculine noun in this tense/aspect pattern.

In Hausa, nouns often take grammatical gender, and agreement shows up in words like ya and ta.

• ya = masculine singular
• ta = feminine singular

So famfo ya lalace means the tap/pump broke or the tap/pump got damaged, with famfo treated as masculine.

If the noun were feminine, you would expect ta instead:

• mota ta lalace = the car broke down

Does lalace mean break, be broken, or get damaged?

It most naturally means become damaged / get spoiled / break down.

So ya lalace is often best understood as:

• it broke
• it got damaged
• it stopped working

The exact English translation depends on context. With famfo, English might say:

• The tap broke
• The pump broke down
• The faucet got damaged

So lalace is a very useful Hausa verb for something no longer being in good condition.