Wannan shi ne tushen matsalar.

Yes:

• Wannan = this or this one
• shi ne = is / it is
• tushen = the root/source of
• matsalar = the problem

So a very literal gloss is:

This, it is, the root/source of the problem.

Natural English: This is the root of the problem.

Wannan is a demonstrative, meaning this or this one.

It can point to:

• a physical thing
• an idea
• a situation
• something just mentioned in conversation

So in this sentence, wannan can mean this thing or this situation.

A useful contrast is:

• wannan = this
• wancan = that

Good question. In Hausa, sentences that identify something often use a pattern like shi ne or ita ce.

Here, shi ne functions like it is or simply is in English.

So:

• Wannan = this
• shi ne = is / it is

Together, Wannan shi ne ... means This is ...

Also, do not over-translate shi as only he. In a sentence like this, it is part of the identification structure and is often best understood as it or just part of is.

In this kind of Hausa sentence, ne and ce show agreement.

Very roughly:

• ne is used with masculine or default singular reference
• ce is used with feminine singular reference

Since the sentence uses shi, the matching form is ne.

You will often see pairs like:

• shi ne
• ita ce

For example, if you were identifying a feminine noun directly, you might get ita ce instead.

The basic noun is tushe, which means:

• root
• source
• origin
• base
• sometimes cause

When Hausa links one noun to another, the first noun often takes a linking ending.

So:

• tushe = root/source
• tushen = root/source of ...

That final -n is doing a job similar to English of.

So:

• tushen matsalar = the root/source of the problem

The basic form is matsala, meaning problem.

In this sentence, matsalar is the specific form, roughly like the problem.

A beginner-friendly way to think about it is this:

• matsala = problem
• matsalar = the problem or that specific problem

Hausa does not have one separate word that works exactly like English the, so endings such as -r or -n often help show that a noun is specific or already known.

Because matsala is a feminine noun, the form here uses -r.

Yes, basically.

It is a noun-plus-noun construction meaning something like:

• the source of the problem
• the root of the problem

English often uses of, while Hausa often links the nouns more directly.

So instead of saying something exactly like root of problem with a separate word for of, Hausa uses the linked form tushen matsalar.

No. It can be literal, but it is also very commonly figurative.

So tushe can mean:

• a literal root
• the origin of something
• the underlying cause
• the real source of a problem

In this sentence, it is clearly figurative: the root/cause/source of the problem.

You may hear shorter versions like that, especially in speech, but Wannan shi ne tushen matsalar is a very common and safe full form.

For a learner, the version with shi is useful because it clearly shows the identification pattern.

So:

• Wannan shi ne tushen matsalar = fully explicit and very natural
• Wannan ne tushen matsalar = shorter, and you may hear it

You would usually use ba ... ba around the core statement:

Wannan ba shi ne tushen matsalar ba.

That means:

This is not the root of the problem.

This ba ... ba pattern is very common in Hausa negation.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

WAH-nan shee neh TOO-shen mat-SAH-lar

A few notes:

• shi sounds like shee
• ne sounds like neh
• tu in tushen is like too
• ts in matsalar is like the end of cats, followed straight into the next vowel

Also, standard Hausa spelling usually does not mark tone, so what you see in writing is only part of the pronunciation story.