Learn Hardcore Hausa: Magani mai kyau yana da amfani sosai.

magani – medicine, remedy, cure (noun)
mai – a particle that turns a following noun into an adjective-like phrase; literally “having/possessing”
kyau – beauty, goodness (noun); with mai, it gives the idea of “good”
yana – ya (3rd person singular masculine “he/it”) + na (imperfect/progressive marker) ⇒ “he/it is (currently)”
da – with / has
amfani – use, usefulness, benefit (noun)
sosai – very, very much, a lot (intensifier/adverb)

So the structure is literally:
Medicine having goodness it-is with usefulness very-much.

Why isn’t there a word for a or the before magani?

Hausa does not use separate words for a/an and the like English does. There are no dedicated articles.

magani can mean medicine, a medicine, the medicine, depending on context.
Definiteness (whether something is “the X” or “a(n) X”) is usually understood from the situation, or shown by:
- context,
- pronouns,
- demonstratives like wannan (this), waccan (that),
- possessive structures (e.g. maganina – my medicine).

So in this sentence, magani is best translated as good medicine or a good medicine, even though there’s no separate word for a/the.

How does mai kyau mean “good”? Why not just say magani kyau?

In Hausa, adjectives are often formed using mai + noun, especially for abstract qualities:

mai roughly means having / possessing.
kyau is a noun meaning beauty / goodness.

So:

mai kyau = “having goodness/beauty” ⇒ “good, beautiful, nice”.

You cannot say magani kyau; that is ungrammatical. The usual patterns are:

magani mai kyau – medicine that has goodness ⇒ good medicine.
Similarly:
- mutum mai hankali – a person having sense ⇒ a sensible person
- gida mai tsabta – house having cleanliness ⇒ a clean house

So mai + N is a productive way to create adjectives from nouns in Hausa.

Why is it yana da and not just ya da before amfani?

yana is a combination of:

ya – 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun (“he” / “it”)
na – imperfect/progressive aspect marker (“is/are (currently) doing”)

So:

ya da by itself is not the normal way to say “has” in this structure.
The idiomatic expression is yana da X = “he/it has X” or “he/it is with X”.

Examples:

Yana da kuɗi. – He has money.
Gidansa yana da dakuna uku. – His house has three rooms.

In your sentence, yana da amfani literally means “it is with usefulness” or “it has usefulness”, which we naturally translate as “it is useful”.

Why is it yana (masculine) and not tana (feminine)? Is magani masculine?

Yes, in Hausa, nouns are grammatically either masculine or feminine, and this affects the choice of pronoun and verb forms.

magani is treated as masculine.
Therefore the pronoun referring back to it must be masculine: ya / shi.
In the progressive form, that gives yana (“he/it is”).

If the noun were feminine, you’d get tana instead:

mota (car) is feminine:
- Mota mai kyau tana da amfani sosai. – A good car is very useful.

So:

magani mai kyau yana da amfani sosai. – because magani is masculine.

Could we say Magani mai kyau mai amfani sosai instead of yana da amfani sosai?

Yes, that is possible grammatically, and the meaning is very close:

magani mai kyau mai amfani sosai
Literally: “medicine having goodness, having a lot of usefulness”
⇒ “a very useful, good medicine”

However, there is a nuance:

magani mai kyau yana da amfani sosai
– emphasizes a statement about good medicine: “Good medicine is very useful.”
magani mai kyau mai amfani sosai
– sounds more like a description of a particular medicine: “a good medicine that is very useful.”

Both are correct; the original sentence uses the yana da construction, which is very common when making general statements about something’s usefulness, possession, features, etc.

What exactly does amfani mean here? Is it “use” or “benefit”?

amfani is a noun that covers:

use (the fact of something being usable)
usefulness
benefit, advantage

In this sentence, amfani should be understood as usefulness/benefit, not “using” as an activity. So:

yana da amfani sosai ≈ “it has a lot of usefulness / it is very beneficial”.

Some related expressions:

Ina jin amfani daga shi. – I am getting benefit from it.
Wannan abu ba shi da wani amfani. – This thing has no use at all.

What does sosai add, and where does it normally go in the sentence?

sosai is an intensifier meaning:

very, very much, greatly, a lot.

In this sentence, it intensifies amfani:

yana da amfani sosai – “it has a lot of usefulness” ⇒ is very useful.

Placement:

It usually comes after the word or phrase it modifies:
- Daɗin abincin ya yi sosai. – The taste of the food was very (good).
- Na gaji sosai. – I am very tired.

Putting sosai earlier, like sosai yana da amfani, sounds marked or unnatural in everyday speech for the meaning “very useful”. The normal place is at the end: …amfani sosai.

How would you say the negative: “Good medicine is not very useful”?

To negate yana da, Hausa typically uses ba … da, often with a pronoun. For magani (masculine), a natural negative is:

Magani mai kyau ba shi da amfani sosai.

Analysis:

ba … da – negative structure for “have / be with”.
shi – pronoun referring to magani (masc. sg.).
ba shi da amfani sosai – “it does not have much usefulness.”

So:

Magani mai kyau ba shi da amfani sosai.
– Good medicine is not very useful.

You may also hear ba ya da instead of ba shi da, but ba shi da is very common in this X yana da Y / X ba shi da Y pattern.

How do you pronounce kyau and sosai? They look tricky.

Approximate pronunciation (without tones):

magani – ma-ga-ni
- ma as in ma in “mama”
- ga as in “garden” (without the r)
- ni like “knee”
mai – my (like English my)
kyau – roughly kyow
- ky is a palatalized k, between “k” and “ch”, a bit like ky in “cute” if you pronounce the “y” strongly.
- au is like “ow” in “cow”.
yena (often pronounced like yen-a; spelling yana)
- ya as in “yard”
- na as in “na” in “nacho”
amfani – am-fa-ni
- am like “am” in “amber”
- fa like “fa” in “father”
- ni like “knee”
sosai – so-sai
- so as in “so”
- sai like “sigh”

So a rough English-like reading: magani mai kyau yana da amfani sosai ≈ ma-ga-ni my kyow yena da am-fa-ni so-sigh.

Are there other common ways to say “very useful” in Hausa besides sosai?

Yes, several intensifiers can be used with amfani:

ƙwarai – very, extremely
- Magani mai kyau yana da amfani ƙwarai. – Good medicine is extremely useful.
matuƙa / matuka – very much, greatly
- Magani mai kyau yana da matuƙar amfani. – Good medicine is very useful indeed / extremely useful.
ƙwarai da gaske – very indeed, truly very
- Magani mai kyau yana da amfani ƙwarai da gaske. – Good medicine is truly very useful.

All of these keep the same basic structure yana da amfani X, just with different intensifiers instead of sosai.