Learn Hardcore Hausa: Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai. - Food at the market is very expensive.

Abinci – food
a – in / at (a general preposition for location)
kasuwa – market
y*an*a (contracted spelling: yana) – he/it is (literally “he/it is being”), 3rd person singular masculine progressive/continuous form
da – with / having
tsada – expensiveness / high price / costliness
sosai – very / really / a lot

So a very literal rendering is: “Food in market it-is with expensiveness very.”

Why do we use a kasuwa and not something like cikin kasuwa or na kasuwa?

Hausa has several ways to express “in/at” or “of”:

a kasuwa – “in/at the market” in a general, neutral sense. a is the basic preposition for location.
cikin kasuwa – more literally “inside the market,” emphasizing the interior or inside area.
na kasuwa – “of the market / belonging to the market” (genitive: ownership/association).

In this sentence, a kasuwa is most natural because we just mean “at the market” as a location where you buy food, not stress “inside” nor “belonging to” the market.

You could also hear Abinci na kasuwa in some contexts, with a nuance more like “market food / food that belongs to the market” (i.e. goods sold there), but a kasuwa is the straightforward locative.

What exactly does yana da mean here? Is it like “is” or like “has”?

Yana da combines:

yana – “he/it is (in a state of doing/being)”
da – “with / having”

Together yana da X literally means “it is with X” → “it has X / it possesses X.”

In practice, Hausa often uses yana da + noun to express a quality:

yana da tsada – it has expensiveness → it is expensive
yana da kyau – it has beauty → it is beautiful / good
yana da nisa – it has distance → it is far

So in this sentence, yana da tsada sosai = “it is very expensive,” even though literally it’s “it has a lot of expensiveness.”

Why is it yana if we’re talking about “food” and not a person? Does yana only mean “he is”?

In Hausa, the 3rd person singular masculine form shi / yana is the default for many non-human singular subjects.

shi – he / it (masc or default)
yana – he/it is (progressive form)

Abinci (food) is grammatically treated as masculine singular in this kind of structure, so:

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai.
“Food in the market is very expensive.”

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

Abincin a kasuwa suna da tsada sosai.
“The foods / food items in the market are very expensive.”
(suna = they are)

But with generic “food” as a mass noun, Hausa uses the singular default, so yana fits.

Is abinci here “food in general” or “the food” specifically? How do you mark definiteness?

Abinci by itself is indefinite and generic: “food” in general.

Hausa doesn’t have a separate word for “the”; it uses suffixes and context to show definiteness:

abinci – food (general)
abincin – the food / that specific food (with the definite suffix -n)

So:

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai.
“Food at the market is very expensive.” (a general statement)

If you want to be more specific:

Abincin a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai.
“The food at the market is very expensive.” (more like a particular market or situation, depending on context)

Often the difference is understood from context rather than strictly from suffixes.

Could I say Abincin kasuwa instead of Abinci a kasuwa? What’s the difference?

Yes, both exist, but with a nuance difference:

Abinci a kasuwa – “food at the market,” focusing on location (food that is found in the market).
Abincin kasuwa – literally “the food of the market / market food,” focusing on association/ownership (food that belongs to the market, i.e. goods sold there).

In many everyday contexts they overlap, and listeners will understand the same idea.
But grammatically:

Abincin kasuwa uses the genitive linker -n to make “food-of-the-market.”
Abinci a kasuwa uses a as a preposition to show place.

Your original sentence is perfectly natural; Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai is slightly more neutral and location-focused.

What does tsada exactly mean? Is it an adjective or a noun?

Tsada is primarily a noun meaning “expensiveness / high cost.”

However, Hausa often uses nouns of quality with da or with a copula to express adjectives:

yana da tsada – “it has expensiveness” → “it is expensive”
tsada sosai – “a lot of expensiveness / very expensive”

So grammatically, tsada is a noun, but functionally in this construction it behaves like the English adjective “expensive.”

Compare with:

kyau – beauty → yana da kyau = it is beautiful/nice
nisa – distance → yana da nisa = it is far

This “noun-of-quality used as adjective” pattern is very common in Hausa.

What is the role of sosai? Can it go anywhere else in the sentence?

Sosai is an intensifier meaning “very / really / a lot.”

In this sentence:

tsada sosai – “very expensive / extremely costly”

Typical placement is after the word it intensifies:

tsada sosai – very expensive
da yawa sosai – very many / so many

Placing sosai earlier in this sentence would sound odd. You would not normally say:

✗ Abinci sosai a kasuwa yana da tsada.

So keep sosai immediately after tsada to intensify “expensive.”

How would I say “The food in the market is not very expensive”?

To make it negative, Hausa uses the ba … ba pattern and changes the verb phrase slightly.

A natural negative version is:

Abinci a kasuwa ba shi da tsada sosai.
Literally: “Food at the market, it is not with much expensiveness.”

Breakdown:

ba … ba – negative frame (here only the first ba is overt; the second ba is often dropped in speech at the end).
shi – it (referring back to abinci)
ba shi da tsada sosai – “it does not have much expensiveness” → “it is not very expensive.”

You could also say:

Abinci a kasuwa ba shi da tsada. – “Food at the market is not expensive.”
Abinci a kasuwa ba shi da tsada sosai ba. – a fully explicit ba … ba pattern, also correct and a bit more formal/emphatic.

Could I just say Abinci a kasuwa tsada sosai without yana da? Would that be correct?

No, Abinci a kasuwa tsada sosai is not natural; it sounds incomplete to a Hausa speaker.

Hausa generally needs some kind of copular element between the subject and a quality:

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai. – uses the yana da structure.
Abinci a kasuwa mai tsada ne sosai. – literally “Food at the market is (a) very expensive one,” using mai tsada (one that has expensiveness) plus ne as a copula.

So you usually need:

yana da
- noun of quality, or
mai
- noun of quality + ne/ce, or
another appropriate verb.

Simply putting tsada after the noun, without any link, is ungrammatical.

How do you pronounce tsada and kasuwa? Any tricky sounds for English speakers?

Pronunciation tips:

tsada:
- ts – an affricate like English “ts” in “cats,” but at the start: ts-a-da.
- a – like “a” in “father.”
- d – normal “d.”
  So roughly: TSAH-dah.
kasuwa:
- ka – “ka” as in “car” (but shorter).
- su – “soo.”
- wa – “wah.”
  So: kah-SOO-wah.

Hausa is tonal, but tone is not usually written. In this context, reasonably natural approximate pronunciations like above will usually be understood. The consonant ts at the beginning of tsada is the main sound that may feel unfamiliar initially.