Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

Last night it was very cold.

Breakdown of Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

• sosai: very
• dare: the night
• jiya: yesterday
• yi: to do
• sanyi: cold

Questions & Answers about Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

What does each word in Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai literally mean?

Word-by-word:

• Jiya – yesterday
• dare – night / evening
• ya – he / it (3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun)
• yi – did / made (here functioning like “was”, used with a noun of state)
• sanyi – cold, coldness
• sosai – very, really, a lot

So a very literal breakdown is: “Yesterday night it did cold very.”
Natural English: “Last night it was very cold.”

Why do we say “ya yi sanyi” instead of something that literally means “was cold”?

In Hausa, a very common way to express states (like being cold, being hot, being tired) is:

subject pronoun + yi + noun of state

Examples:

• na yi sanyi – I am / got cold
• ya yi zafi – it was hot
• sun yi gajiya – they are / became tired

So ya yi sanyi literally is “it did coldness”, but idiomatically it means “it was cold” or “it got cold.”

There are verbs like kasance (“to be, to remain”), but for many everyday physical states, yi + noun is far more natural.

What is the subject of ya in this sentence? Is it “night” or “weather” or something else?

Grammatically, ya is a 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun. In this sentence, it works like a dummy “it”, similar to English “it” in:

• “It was cold last night.”

We don’t refer to a specific noun like “weather” or “night” as the strict grammatical subject. Instead, ya just introduces the verb phrase yi sanyi.

So you can think of ya here as impersonal “it”, not really “he” referring to dare.

Could we say “Dare ya yi sanyi sosai” without jiya? What would that mean?

Yes, you can say:

• Dare ya yi sanyi sosai. – The night was very cold / It was very cold at night.

Here dare is now a clear time reference (“at night”), and ya is still the dummy “it”.

Meaning-wise:

• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.
  → Last night it was very cold.

• Dare ya yi sanyi sosai.
  → At night it was very cold (not specifying which night).

Is “jiya dare” the only way to say “last night”? What about “daren jiya” or “jiya da dare”?

Several forms are used in practice:

1. Jiya dare – literally “yesterday night”; common and clear.
2. Daren jiya – literally “the night of yesterday”; also very common and maybe a bit more compact for “last night”.
3. Jiya da dare – literally “yesterday at night”; also correct and natural.

All three can mean “last night”, with only slight stylistic or regional preferences.
Examples:

• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.
• Daren jiya ya yi sanyi sosai.
• Jiya da dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

All are understandable as “Last night it was very cold.”

What tense is “ya yi” here? Is it past, perfect, or something else?

Ya yi is in the completed aspect (perfective), which in many contexts corresponds to a simple past in English.

So in this sentence:

• ya yi sanyi – it was / got cold

Because we also have the time word jiya (“yesterday”), it is clearly past time:
“Yesterday night it was very cold.”

Can I drop “ya” and just say “Jiya dare yi sanyi sosai”?

No. In standard Hausa you need the subject pronoun before yi in this kind of sentence.

Correct pattern:

• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

Incorrect:

• ✗ Jiya dare yi sanyi sosai.

Hausa generally requires an explicit subject (or subject pronoun) with the verb, even when English uses an “empty” it.

Why is sanyi a noun and not an adjective? How do I say “cold” as an adjective in Hausa?

Sanyi is primarily a noun meaning “coldness, cold”. Hausa often uses nouns of state plus yi to talk about how something “is/feels”:

• na ji sanyi – I feel cold (literally “I felt coldness”)
• ya yi sanyi – it was / got cold

Hausa does have adjectives like sanyi-sanyi or mai sanyi in some contexts, but for weather or personal sensations, the noun-of-state construction is far more natural.

So instead of an adjective like English “cold”, Hausa very often says:

• yi sanyi – to be/get/feel cold (literally “do coldness”)

What exactly does sosai add to the sentence? Can I leave it out?

Sosai means “very, really, a lot.”

• ya yi sanyi – it was cold
• ya yi sanyi sosai – it was very cold / really cold

You can absolutely leave it out:

• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi. – Last night it was cold.
• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai. – Last night it was very cold.

Other intensifiers you might hear include ƙwarai, ainun, matuka, e.g. sanyi ƙwarai, sanyi ainun.

Could I say “Jiya dare sanyi sosai ne” instead? How is that different?

You could say:

• Jiya dare sanyi sosai ne.

This is more like:

• “Last night was very cold” with “last night” treated as the topic, and “very cold” as a description, using the focus/coupling particle ne.

However, for weather and states, the pattern ya yi sanyi is more neutral and idiomatic.

So:

• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai. – normal, very natural.
• Jiya dare sanyi sosai ne. – grammatically possible, but sounds more like a comment or evaluation (“Last night was really cold!”), and is less the default weather expression.

How would I say “Tomorrow night it will be very cold” using a similar structure?

You can keep the same basic pattern and just change the time word and the tense:

• Gobe da dare – tomorrow night
• Future/irrealis marker: za (which contracts in speech)

A natural sentence:

• Gobe da dare za a yi sanyi sosai.

Literally: “Tomorrow at night there will be done coldness very.”
Natural English: “Tomorrow night it will be very cold.”

Note that for future weather, Hausa often uses impersonal “za a…” instead of “ya”, but you might also hear:

• Gobe da dare zai yi sanyi sosai. – also understandable.

Is there any difference between “jiya da dare” and “jiya dare” in everyday speech?

In everyday usage:

• Jiya da dare – literally “yesterday at night”
• Jiya dare – literally “yesterday night”

In most contexts, both are understood as “last night”, with almost no practical difference.

Some speakers may feel “jiya da dare” emphasizes the time phrase “yesterday at night” a bit more clearly, but in conversation both forms are very common and interchangeable in sentences like:

• Jiya da dare ya yi sanyi sosai.
• Jiya dare ya yi sanyi sosai.

Both: “Last night it was very cold.”

How would I say “Yesterday it was very cold during the day, not at night”?

To specify “during the day”, use rana (“daytime”):

• Jiya da rana ya yi sanyi sosai, ba da dare ba.

Breakdown:

• Jiya da rana – yesterday during the day
• ya yi sanyi sosai – it was very cold
• ba da dare ba – not at night

Meaning: “Yesterday it was very cold during the day, not at night.”