Questions & Answers about Ni ina yi wa kowa sallama.
Broken down, the sentence looks like this:
- Ni – independent pronoun: I / me (emphatic, “me, I …”)
- ina – 1st person singular continuous subject marker: roughly I am / I (habitually)
- yi – verb: do, make, perform
- wa – preposition / object marker: to, for (someone)
- kowa – pronoun: everyone, everybody (or anyone in negative contexts)
- sallama – verbal noun: greeting, the act of greeting
A very literal gloss is:
Ni (me) ina (I‑am) yi (doing) wa (to) kowa (everyone) sallama (greeting).
Natural English: I greet everyone / I send my greetings to everyone.
They are two different kinds of pronoun:
- ni is an independent/emphatic pronoun – used for focus, contrast, or after prepositions.
- ina is a subject marker for the continuous aspect, meaning roughly I (am) before a verb.
In Ni ina yi wa kowa sallama:
- ina is the normal subject marker: I am doing …
- ni adds emphasis or focus: Me, I greet everyone.
Compare:
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I greet everyone. (neutral)
- Ni ina yi wa kowa sallama. – Me, I greet everyone (maybe others don’t; or in answer to “Who greets everyone?”).
In everyday speech you will very often just hear:
Ina yi wa kowa sallama.
They are spelled the same but they are different words:
- In this sentence, ina is the 1st‑person continuous subject marker: I am / I (do).
- The question word ina? means where?.
Native speakers distinguish them by tone and context, but in regular writing the spelling is the same. Context usually makes it clear:
- Ina kake? – Where are you?
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I (am) greet(ing) everyone.
So in Ni ina yi wa kowa sallama, ina is not “where”; it’s “I (am)”.
ina expresses the continuous / imperfective aspect. In English it usually corresponds to either:
- Present progressive: I am greeting everyone (right now).
- Habitual / present simple: I greet everyone (as a habit).
Hausa uses the same form for both; context decides which is meant.
For example:
- Ina karatu. – I am studying / I study (generally).
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I am greeting everyone (now) / I usually greet everyone.
If you clearly wanted a completed past, you would normally use na, not ina:
- Na yi wa kowa sallama. – I greeted everyone (I’ve already done it).
yi is the basic verb “to do, to make, to perform.”
In Hausa, many actions are expressed as:
yi + verbal noun
rather than a simple verb alone. sallama is a verbal noun (the “greeting” itself), so you say yi sallama – literally “do greeting.”
Some parallels:
- yi magana – to speak / to talk (literally “do speech”)
- yi aiki – to work (literally “do work”)
- yi laifi – to commit an offence (literally “do offence”)
Likewise:
- yi wa kowa sallama – to greet everyone / to send greetings to everyone.
There is no everyday finite verb “to sallama” by itself; you use yi with sallama to express the action.
wa is a preposition / object marker meaning “to, for (someone)”.
It marks the recipient or beneficiary of the action:
- yi wa kowa sallama – do greeting *to everyone*
- Na yi wa Musa sallama. – I greeted Musa / I said hello to Musa.
So the pattern is:
yi wa + [person/people] + sallama
You normally cannot just drop wa here.
✗ Ina yi kowa sallama is not correct.
You can say Ina yi sallama by itself, but then you’re simply saying “I am greeting / I’m giving the greeting” without explicitly saying to whom. To name the person, you add wa + person.
At beginner level, treat yi wa kowa sallama as the standard, natural expression and don’t replace wa here.
Very briefly:
- wa – “to/for (someone)” used before a full noun or pronoun:
- Na yi wa kowa sallama. – I greeted everyone.
- ma – similar meaning “to/for,” but it usually attaches to pronouns:
- Na yi musu sallama. – I greeted them. (mu‑su = to‑them)
- ga – often means “to, at, here is,” but it doesn’t slot into this idiom in the same way.
So for the pattern with kowa:
Use yi wa kowa sallama, not yi ga kowa sallama or yi ma kowa sallama.
kowa is an indefinite pronoun meaning:
- “everyone, everybody” in positive sentences
- “anyone” / “anybody” in negative and question contexts
In your sentence:
- wa kowa – to everyone.
Other examples:
- Kowa ya san haka. – Everyone knows that.
- Ba ya son kowa. – He doesn’t like anyone.
- Ka gayawa kowa. – Tell everyone.
Note: even though kowa is “everyone,” the verb that follows it as a subject is singular:
- Kowa ya zo. – Everyone came. (literally: everyone he‑came)
sallama is a (verbal) noun, not a finite verb.
- It comes from Arabic salām (“peace, greeting”) and in Hausa it means greeting, the act of greeting.
You normally combine it with yi (do) to make a verb phrase:
- yi sallama – to greet
- yi wa su sallama – to greet them / to send greetings to them
So in yi wa kowa sallama, sallama is the thing being done (the greeting), not the verb itself.
Yes, the difference is in emphasis:
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I greet everyone. (plain statement)
- Ni ina yi wa kowa sallama. – Me, I greet everyone.
The version with ni suggests one of:
- a contrast: “Others may not greet everyone, but I do,” or
- an answer to “Who greets everyone?” – “I do.”
If you just want a neutral sentence, Ina yi wa kowa sallama is enough.
For this pattern, the normal word order is:
(Ni) ina yi wa + [recipient] + sallama
So:
- ✅ Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – natural
- ❓ Ina yi sallama wa kowa. – unusual / not standard for learners
Native speakers can move elements around in more complex focus constructions, but at your level you should keep:
yi wa [person] sallama
as a fixed chunk. Think of yi wa kowa sallama as one unit: “greet everyone / send greetings to everyone.”
The negative of the continuous ina usually uses ba … na … ba (often contracted to bana). A clear negative sentence is:
- Ba na yi wa kowa sallama ba.
– I don’t greet anyone (I don’t give greeting to anyone).
You might also hear:
- Bana yi wa kowa sallama. – same meaning, more colloquial (final ba dropped).
- With extra emphasis on I:
- Ni ba na yi wa kowa sallama ba. – Me, I don’t greet anyone.
Notice that in negative contexts, kowa is understood as “anyone” rather than “everyone.”
Keep yi wa kowa sallama the same, and change the subject marker (the part like ina).
Continuous (present / habitual) subject markers:
- I – ina
- you (m. sg) – kana
- you (f. sg) – kina
- he – yana
- she – tana
- we – muna
- you (pl) – kuna
- they – suna
Examples:
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I greet everyone.
- Kana yi wa kowa sallama. – You (m.sg) greet everyone.
- Kina yi wa kowa sallama. – You (f.sg) greet everyone.
- Yana yi wa kowa sallama. – He greets everyone.
- Tana yi wa kowa sallama. – She greets everyone.
- Muna yi wa kowa sallama. – We greet everyone.
- Kuna yi wa kowa sallama. – You (pl) greet everyone.
- Suna yi wa kowa sallama. – They greet everyone.
You can optionally add independent pronouns for emphasis, just like with ni:
- Mu muna yi wa kowa sallama. – We, we greet everyone.
- Su suna yi wa kowa sallama. – They, they greet everyone.
Typical uses include:
- On the phone or in a message, when you want to send greetings to everyone in a group:
- “Tell them I greet everyone.” → Ina yi wa kowa sallama.
- Describing your habit or politeness:
- Ina yi wa kowa sallama. – I greet everyone (I’m the kind of person who does greet everyone).
The expression itself is neutral and polite, fine in both informal and relatively formal situations.