Learn Hardcore Hausa: Hanya zuwa garinmu tana da kyau.

Hanya – road, path, way
zuwa – to / towards (a preposition related to “going to”)
garinmu – our town
- gari – town
- -n – genitive linker “of”
- -mu – our
  So garinmu is literally “town-of-us” → “our town.”
tana – she/it is (3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun + continuous/stative marker)
da – with / has
kyau – beauty, goodness, “goodness/beauty” (here functioning like “good / nice / beautiful”)

Literal idea: “The road to our town, it has beauty.” → natural English: “The road to our town is good / nice / beautiful.”

Why is it tana and not yana in this sentence?

In Hausa, verbs agree with grammatical gender (and number) of the subject.

tana = she/it (feminine) is / has
yana = he/it (masculine) is / has

The noun hanya (road, way) is grammatically feminine, so the verb must use the feminine form:

Hanya … tana da kyau. – The road … is good.

If the subject were a masculine noun, you’d use yana:

Gida yana da kyau. – The house is good.
(gida “house” is masculine.)

Is hanya “road” or “way”? Does it also mean “method”?

Hanya primarily means:

a physical road, path, route
a way, direction
by extension, a method or way of doing something

Some examples:

Hanya zuwa Kano tana da kyau. – The road to Kano is good.
Ina neman hanya. – I’m looking for the way / a way.
Wannan hanya ce mai kyau ta koyon Hausa. – This is a good way/method of learning Hausa.

In your sentence, the most natural translation is “The road to our town is good/nice.”

What exactly does zuwa do here, and can it be omitted?

Zuwa is a preposition meaning to / towards, connected to the verb zuwa “to go” in origin, but used like a preposition.

hanya zuwa garinmu – the road to our town

You cannot omit zuwa here. If you just said hanya garinmu, it would sound more like “our town’s road” in a possessive sense, not “the road that leads to our town.”

Compare:

Hanya zuwa garinmu – the road that goes to our town
Hanyar garinmu – the road of our town / our town’s road

How is garinmu formed, and is that always how “our X” is said?

Garinmu breaks down as:

gari – town
-n – linker for genitive “of” (appears as -n / -r / -ɗan depending on the word)
mu – we / our

So gari + n + mu → garinmu = “our town”.

This pattern is very common for possessives:

motar mu → motarmu – our car (from mota “car”, feminine so linker -r)
gidan mu → gidanmu – our house (from gida “house”, masculine so linker -n)
littafin mu → littafinmu – our book

Often in writing and fast speech the linker and mu are joined to the noun as one word, as in garinmu.

What does tana da kyau literally mean, and why is it used to say “is good”?

Literally:

tana – she/it is (feminine subject)
da – with / has
kyau – beauty, goodness

So tana da kyau is literally “it has beauty” or “it is with beauty”.

In Hausa, this “has beauty” structure is the standard way to say something is beautiful / is good / looks nice:

Gida yana da kyau. – The house is nice/beautiful.
Rigarta tana da kyau. – Her dress is nice.

So Hanya zuwa garinmu tana da kyau is more literally “The road to our town has beauty” but is idiomatically “The road to our town is beautiful / is good.”

Could I just say Hanya zuwa garinmu kyakkyawa ce instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Hanya zuwa garinmu kyakkyawa ce.

Here:

kyakkyawa – an adjective meaning “beautiful” (feminine form)
ce – the feminine “copula” (linking word) used when the predicate is a noun/adjective

This sentence is more like:

“The road to our town is beautiful.”

Differences in feel:

tana da kyau – very common, everyday; literally “has beauty,” equivalent to “is nice/good/beautiful.”
kyakkyawa ce – a bit more explicitly “beautiful,” and can sound slightly more descriptive/emphatic.

Both are correct; tana da kyau is more general and frequent in casual speech.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” in Hanya zuwa garinmu? How do you show definiteness?

Hausa does not have a separate word for “the” like English does. Definiteness (the vs a) is usually shown by:

Context – If both speakers know which road, hanya naturally means “the road.”
Genitive/possessive structure – e.g. hanyar garinmu comes across as “the road of our town.”
Sentence position and information structure.

You could also say:

Hanyar zuwa garinmu tana da kyau.

Here hanyar is hanya + -r, a form that often appears when the noun is linked to something after it (like “road of/to X”). This also tends to feel more definite: “the road to our town.”

So both:

Hanya zuwa garinmu…
Hanyar zuwa garinmu…

are possible; hanyar is often preferred in more careful speech when a modifier follows.

How would I say “The roads to our town are good” (plural)?

You need to pluralize the subject and adjust the verb:

Hanyoyin zuwa garinmu suna da kyau.

Breakdown:

hanya – road
hanyoyi – roads
hanyoyin – roads of / the roads (with linker -n)
suna – they (3rd person plural) are / have
da kyau – with beauty → are good/nice

So:

Hanyoyin zuwa garinmu suna da kyau. – The roads to our town are good.

How do I make the sentence negative: “The road to our town is not good”?

To negate tana da, you generally wrap with ba … ba and change da to da under negation (structure: ba … da … ba):

Hanya zuwa garinmu ba ta da kyau.

Breakdown:

ba ta da … – she/it does not have …
kyau – beauty, goodness

So the meaning is “The road to our town does not have beauty” → “The road to our town is not good / is in bad condition.”

Is tana da always “has”? When is it “has” vs “is good”?

Tana da (or yana da, suna da, etc.) always literally means “has” / “is with.”

The meaning depends on the noun that follows:

Ownership/possession:
- Tana da mota. – She has a car.
- Garinmu yana da kasuwa. – Our town has a market.
Quality/appearance when followed by words like kyau, tsawo (height), etc.:
- Gida yana da kyau. – The house is nice/beautiful.
- Mutumin nan yana da tsawo. – That man is tall (literally “has height”).

In your sentence, because kyau is a quality, tana da kyau is interpreted as “is nice/beautiful/good.”

What’s the typical word order in this sentence? Could I move zuwa garinmu to another place?

The normal word order is:

[Subject] [modifier(s)] [verb] [rest, if any]

Here:

Hanya zuwa garinmu – subject + its “to our town” phrase
tana da kyau – predicate (“is good”)

You could say:

Hanyar zuwa garinmu tana da kyau. (very natural)
Hanya zuwa garinmu tana da kyau. (also natural)

You would not normally move zuwa garinmu after the verb in a basic statement. A version like:

✗ Hanya tana da kyau zuwa garinmu.

is not natural; zuwa garinmu clearly belongs with hanya, describing which road, so it stays right after hanya.

How would I say “The way to our town is easy” using a similar structure?

You can keep almost the same structure and just change the quality:

Hanya zuwa garinmu tana da sauƙi.

Breakdown:

sauƙi – ease, easiness
tana da sauƙi – it has ease → it is easy

So:

Hanya zuwa garinmu tana da sauƙi. – The way to our town is easy.