Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ni ina magana da kai yanzu.

Ina magana da kai yanzu. = I’m talking to you now.
Ni ina magana da kai yanzu. = Me, I’m talking to you now (implying “not him / not her / not them”).

In everyday speech, you will very often hear just:

Ina magana da kai yanzu.

Can I drop Ni and say only Ina magana da kai yanzu?

Yes, absolutely. That is the most common, neutral way to say it.

Ina magana da kai yanzu. – perfectly natural and correct.

Adding Ni is optional and mainly for emphasis or contrast.

Does ina always mean “I am”, or can it also mean something else?

ina is actually two different words in Hausa, depending on context:

ina as a progressive subject (what you see here):
- Ina magana. – I am talking.
- Ina cin abinci. – I am eating.
ina as a question word = “where?”
- Ina kake? – Where are you?
- Ina gidan ka? – Where is your house?

In your sentence (Ni ina magana da kai yanzu), it is clearly the first one: “I am …‑ing”.

What exactly does magana mean? Is it a verb or a noun?

magana is a noun meaning “speech, talk, utterance”.

Hausa often uses a verbal noun plus a helper/tense marker to express continuous actions. So:

ina magana literally = “I am in (the act of) speech”
natural English = “I am talking / I am speaking”

Compare:

magana – speech/talk
Ina magana. – I am talking.
Na yi magana. – I spoke / I have spoken. (here yi is a verb “to do/make”, so “I did speech”.)

What does da mean here? Why is it “with you” instead of “to you”?

da is a very flexible word in Hausa. In this sentence, it means roughly “with”:

magana da kai – talk with you / speak with you

Depending on context, da can mean:

with (accompaniment):
- Ina zuwa da shi. – I’m going with him.
and (linking words/phrases):
- Ali da Musa. – Ali and Musa.
part of a “have” construction:
- Ina da kudi. – I have money.

In English we often say “talk to you”; Hausa prefers magana da kai (“talk with you”), but the meaning is the same.

What is the difference between kai, ke, and ku?

These are independent second‑person pronouns:

kai – you (singular, male)
ke – you (singular, female)
ku – you (plural)

So:

Talking to one man:
- Ina magana da kai. – I’m talking with you (a man).
Talking to one woman:
- Ina magana da ke. – I’m talking with you (a woman).
Talking to several people:
- Ina magana da ku. – I’m talking with you (all of you).

Your sentence uses kai, so it is directed to one male listener.

What is the difference between kai and ka? I see both in different sentences.

Good observation; they look similar but are different forms:

kai = independent pronoun, used after prepositions and for emphasis:
- da kai – with you
- Kai kake? – Is it you? / It’s you?
ka = bound subject or object form (often attached to verbs or markers):
- Kana magana. – You (m.sg.) are talking.
- Na ganka. – I saw you (m.sg.).

In your sentence, da kai must use the independent form kai because it comes after the preposition da.

Why is yanzu at the end? Can I say Yanzu ina magana da kai?

yanzu means “now” and its position is quite flexible:

Ina magana da kai yanzu. – I am talking to you now.
Yanzu ina magana da kai. – Now I am talking to you.

Both are correct. Moving yanzu to the beginning can add a bit of focus:

Yanzu ina magana da kai. implies something like “Right now, (it’s) you I’m talking to” or “At this moment, I’m talking to you.”

Grammatically, both positions are fine.

How does Hausa show the “‑ing” idea, like “am talking” vs “talked”?

In Hausa, the progressive / present continuous (English “am doing”) is usually formed with:

a subject + progressive marker (like ina, kana, yana, tana…)
+ a verbal noun (like magana, ci, sha).

Examples:

Ina magana. – I am talking.
Kana aiki. – You (m.sg.) are working.
Tana karatu. – She is studying.

For simple past, Hausa typically uses perfective forms, very often built with na + verb:

Na yi magana. – I spoke / I have spoken.
Na yi aiki. – I worked.
Ta yi karatu. – She studied.

So your sentence is clearly progressive (“am talking”), not past.

Could I say Ni nake magana da kai yanzu instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, Ni nake magana da kai yanzu is also correct, but it has a stronger emphasis and uses a slightly different structure.

Ni nake magana da kai yanzu.
Literally: “It is I who am talking with you now.”

Here:

Ni – I
nake – a relative/emphatic form of the verb “to be in a continuous state” for 1st person singular
magana – talking
da kai – with you
yanzu – now

This construction is often used to emphasize the subject (“I’m the one…”).

By contrast:

Ina magana da kai yanzu. – neutral, plain statement.
Ni ina magana da kai yanzu. – some emphasis on “me”.
Ni nake magana da kai yanzu. – even clearer “It’s me (and not others) who is talking to you now.”

Is the word order always Subject – Verb – Object like in English?

Most basic Hausa clauses do follow Subject – Verb – Object (SVO) in a broad sense, but you should think of your sentence more as:

(Subject/Marker) – Verbal noun – Complement – Time

For Ni ina magana da kai yanzu:

Ni – subject pronoun (“I”), emphatic
ina – “I am (…‑ing)” (progressive subject marker)
magana – talking
da kai – with you
yanzu – now

A simpler, neutral form:

Ina magana da kai yanzu.
(Subject+marker) – (verbal noun) – (prepositional phrase) – (time)

So while it broadly looks like SVO, Hausa builds its verb phrase differently (using verbal nouns and markers).

Is da kai one unit like a prepositional phrase, or is da more like a conjunction “and”?

In da kai, da functions like a preposition meaning “with”, so da kai is a prepositional phrase:

da (with) + kai (you, m.sg.) → with you

But the same word da can also behave like a coordinating conjunction meaning “and”:

Ali da Musa – Ali and Musa
ruwa da abinci – water and food

So you must read it from context:

After a verb like magana, da = with.
Between two nouns or noun phrases, da often = and.

Do I have to capitalize Ni, Ina, etc., or is that only because the sentence starts with them?

Hausa capitalization follows the same general rules as English:

Capitalize the first word of a sentence.
Capitalize proper names (Ali, Hausa, Nigeria, etc.).

Pronouns like ni, kai, ina are not capitalized in the middle of a sentence. In your example, Ni is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

If it appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would be written ni.