Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai.

Word by word:

• gaskiya – truth, honesty
• tana – she/it (feminine) + is/has (present; literally she is having/being with)
• da – with; in this structure it functions like have/has
• muhimmanci – importance
• sosai – very, a lot, extremely

A very literal gloss would be: “Truth, it has importance very.”
Natural English: “Truth is very important.”

Structurally, tana da literally means “she/it is with / she/it has”, so it is closer to “has”.

• gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai
  = truth has a lot of importance
  → idiomatic English: truth is very important

So grammatically Hausa is saying “has importance”, but in English we normally say “is important.”

In Hausa, nouns are grammatically masculine or feminine, and the verb form agrees with that gender.

• tana = ta (she/it, feminine) + na (imperfective marker)
• yana = ya (he/it, masculine) + na

The noun gaskiya is grammatically feminine, so you must use the feminine form tana:

• Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai. ✅
• *Gaskiya yana da muhimmanci sosai. ❌ (ungrammatical)

Unfortunately, gender is mostly lexical: you learn it word by word, though many abstract nouns like gaskiya tend to be feminine.

da is a preposition that basically means “with”.
When it appears with forms like yana / tana / suna, it often corresponds to English “have / has.”

• Ina da mota. – I have a car. (I am with a car.)
• Yana da kuɗi. – He has money. (He is with money.)
• Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai. – Truth has a lot of importance.

So in this sentence, tana da is functioning as “has”, even though the literal core of da is “with.”

• muhimmi = important (adjective)
• muhimmanci = importance (noun)

Your sentence uses the noun:

• Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai.
  Literally: Truth has a lot of importance.

You could also use the adjective and say:

• Gaskiya muhimmi ce sosai.
  Literally: Truth is (a) very important (one).
  Natural English: Truth is very important.

Both are correct; they just use different structures:

• tana da + noun (muhimmanci) → “has importance”
• muhimmi ce → “is important”

sosai is an intensifier meaning “very, really, extremely, a lot.”

• With it: Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai.
  → Truth is very important.
• Without it: Gaskiya tana da muhimmanci.
  → Truth is important.

Both are grammatical; sosai just makes the statement stronger.

You’ll also hear sosai intensifying verbs and adjectives:

• Na gaji sosai. – I’m very tired.
• Yana da kuɗi sosai. – He has a lot of money.

Hausa doesn’t use a direct equivalent of the English definite article “the” in the same way. Whether a noun is generic, definite, or indefinite is usually understood from:

• context,
• word order,
• additional words (like demonstratives wannan “this”, waccan “that”), etc.

Here, gaskiya is being used in a general, abstract sense – truth in general. Hausa just says gaskiya for that. In English we naturally say “The truth is very important” or “Truth is very important”; both map to the same Hausa sentence.

gaskiya covers both:

1. Truth (as a concept, or the true version of events)

   • Faɗa min gaskiya. – Tell me the truth.

2. Honesty / truthfulness (a personal quality)

   • Yana da gaskiya. – He is honest / He has honesty.

In your sentence, gaskiya tana da muhimmanci sosai, it can be understood as:

• Truth is very important, and also
• Honesty is very important, depending on context. The overall idea is that being truthful / the truth itself matters a lot.

Approximate pronunciation (without tone):

• Gaskiya – GAH-skee-ya

  • gas like English “gas”
  • ki like kee in “keep”
  • ya like “yah”

• tana – TAH-na

  • two open a sounds, like “father”

• da – da

  • short a, like the a in “cup” but a bit more open

• muhimmanci – mu-HIM-man-chee

  • mu like “moo” but shorter
  • him as in English “him”
  • man as in “man”
  • ci pronounced like chee

• sosai – SO-sai

  • so like “so”
  • sai like “sigh”

So the whole sentence:
GAH-skee-ya TAH-na da mu-HIM-man-chee SO-sai

Yes, several variants are common. A few examples:

1. Gaskiya muhimmi ce sosai.
   – Uses the adjective muhimmi and the copula ce.

2. Gaskiya tana da matuƙar muhimmanci.
   – matuƙar is another intensifier: “extremely / greatly important.”

3. Gaskiya abu ne mai muhimmanci sosai.
   – Literally: “Truth is a thing that has great importance.”

   • abu – thing
   • ne – copula (masc.)
   • mai muhimmanci – “having importance” → “important”

Your original sentence, though, is already very natural and idiomatic.