Learn Hardcore Hausa: Wando ɗin da na saya ba tsada ba ne, arha ne. - The trousers I bought are not expensive; they are cheap.

ɗin is a kind of definite/specific marker. Here it makes wando mean “the trousers (we both know about)” rather than just “trousers” in general.

It often suggests:

a specific item already known in the conversation, or
“those particular trousers I mentioned / am pointing at.”

So wando ɗin da na saya is like “the trousers that I bought (those particular ones)”.

Could I just say Wando da na saya without ɗin? Would it still be correct?

Yes, Wando da na saya is grammatically correct and understandable as “the trousers that I bought.”

Adding ɗin usually:

makes the reference more specific or emphatic, and
sounds slightly more natural in many real-life contexts when you are clearly talking about a particular, known pair of trousers.

So both forms are possible; wando ɗin da na saya feels more “anchored” to a specific item.

What is the role of da in da na saya?

In this sentence da is acting as a relative particle, similar to English “that/which”.

So:

wando ɗin da na saya ≈ “the trousers that I bought”
(da na saya = “that I bought”).

Note that da has several meanings in Hausa (like “and”, “with”), but here it introduces a relative clause.

What does na in na saya mean? Why not use ni for “I”?

na here is the 1st person singular subject marker in the perfective (completed action), so na saya means “I bought.”

na = “I” as a verb prefix (in the past/perfective)
saya = “buy”

So:

na saya = “I bought”
ya saya = “he bought”
ta saya = “she bought”

ni is the independent pronoun (“I” on its own), used for emphasis or when it stands by itself:

Ni na saya wando ɗin. = “It was I who bought the trousers.”

In ba tsada ba ne, where is the word “it”? Why is there no explicit “it” like in English?

Hausa doesn’t need a separate word for “it” here. The structure ba tsada ba ne literally wraps the adjective tsada (“expensive”) in a negative frame and ends with ne, a kind of copula that links back to the subject (wando ɗin).

The idea is:

[wando ɗin] ba tsada ba ne
≈ “[the trousers] are not expensive.”

The reference to “it” is understood from context; ne connects the whole predicate back to the subject.

How does the negative structure ba tsada ba ne work? Why are there two ba’s and a ne at the end?

This is a common pattern for negating a noun/adjective predicate in Hausa.

ba … ba: surrounds the word/phrase being negated
tsada: “expensiveness” → “expensive”
ne: copular element agreeing (here) with a masculine singular subject

So:

ba tsada ba ne ≈ “(it) is not expensive.”

Very similar structures:

Ni ba ɗalibi ba ne. = “I am not a student.”
Gidan nan ba tsada ba ne. = “This house is not expensive.”

The double ba is just how this particular negative construction is formed.

Why is it arha ne and not arha ce at the end?

ne and ce are both copular particles, and they agree in gender with the subject:

ne → used with masculine singular nouns
ce → used with feminine singular nouns

wando (trousers) is grammatically masculine in Hausa, so you say:

Wando ɗin … arha ne. = “The trousers are cheap.”

If the subject were feminine, you would use ce:

Riga (shirt, feminine): Rigar da na saya arha ce.
= “The shirt I bought is cheap.”

Are tsada and arha adjectives or nouns? Can they be used like “expensive trousers” in English?

In form, tsada and arha are more like nouns meaning “expensiveness” and “cheapness,” but they are very commonly used as adjective-like predicates, as in this sentence:

wando ɗin … ba tsada ba ne, arha ne
→ “The trousers are not expensive, they are cheap.”

To say “expensive trousers” before the noun, Hausa usually uses mai plus the noun/adjective of quality:

wando mai tsada = “expensive trousers”
wando mai arha = “cheap trousers”

So the typical pattern is:

predicate: wando ɗin arha ne (“the trousers are cheap”)
attributive: wando mai arha (“cheap trousers”).

Could I express the same idea using a verb like “to be cheap/expensive” instead of this ne/ce pattern?

Yes. Hausa can also use a verb-like expression with yi to talk about price:

Wando ɗin da na saya bai yi tsada ba, ya yi arha.
≈ “The trousers I bought were not expensive; they were cheap.”

Here:

ya yi tsada = “it was expensive”
ya yi arha = “it was cheap.”

Both styles are natural:

ba tsada ba ne, arha ne (with ne)
bai yi tsada ba, ya yi arha (with yi).

The sentence you gave uses the copular style, which is very common in everyday speech.

Why is wando singular in Hausa, when “trousers” is plural in English?

In Hausa, wando refers to one garment (a pair of trousers) and is grammatically singular, even though in English trousers looks plural.

The plural of wando is wanduna (“pairs of trousers”). For example:

Na saya wando ɗaya. = “I bought one pair of trousers.”
Na saya wanduna biyu. = “I bought two pairs of trousers.”

So wando ɗin da na saya is literally “the (one) pair of trousers that I bought.”