Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci.

Ina sha shayi = I am drinking tea / I drink tea (habitually).
Ina so in sha shayi = I want to drink tea (I’m not drinking yet; it’s a desire or intention).

So:

so = to like / to want
in sha = that I (should) drink (subjunctive form)

Putting it together:
Ina so in sha shayi = I want (that I should drink) tea → I want to drink tea.

If you said Ina sha shayi bayan na ci abinci, it would mean I (usually / now) drink tea after I eat food, not I want to drink tea after I eat food.

What exactly is the little word in in in sha? Is it a pronoun, a tense marker, or what?

The in in in sha is the 1st person singular subjunctive marker.

Hausa has a special set of forms called subjunctive (sometimes also called “short imperfective” in older descriptions), used after verbs like want, try, order, tell, and in some other structures.

For sha (to drink):

ina sha = I drink / I am drinking
na sha = I drank / I have drunk
in sha = (that) I drink / I should drink (subjunctive)

So in the sentence:

Ina so in sha shayi
- Ina so = I want
- in sha = that I drink

So in is not a separate pronoun like ni; it is a special subjunctive subject marker attached to the verb.

Could I say Ina son shan shayi bayan na ci abinci instead? What’s the difference from Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci?

Yes, you can say both, and both are correct:

Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci.
Ina son shan shayi bayan na ci abinci.

They have almost the same meaning: I want to drink tea after I have eaten (food).

The difference is in structure:

Ina so in sha shayi…
- so is treated like a full verb (want).
- It takes a subordinate clause with subjunctive: in sha shayi (that I drink tea).
Ina son shan shayi…
- son is the genitive (possessive) form of so.
- shan is the verbal noun form of sha.
- Literally: I am in the wanting of the drinking of tea…

In practice:

(1) feels more clearly “clausal”: I want that I drink tea…
(2) feels more “nouny”: I want the drinking of tea…

Both are very common in everyday Hausa.

In bayan na ci abinci, what tense or aspect is na ci? Does it mean “after I eat” or “after I have eaten”?

na ci is the 1st person singular perfective of ci (to eat).

na ci = I ate / I have eaten

With bayan, the natural English is after I have eaten (or more simply after I eat, depending on context).

So:

bayan na ci abinci
≈ after I have eaten food
(time sequence: eating is completed, then the next action happens)

It does not use ina (progressive) or zan (future), so it is talking about the eating as a completed event relative to the tea-drinking.

Why is it na ci and not ina ci or zan ci after bayan?

You could use other forms, but bayan very naturally goes with a completed action, so the perfective (na ci) is the default.

bayan na ci abinci = after I have eaten / after I ate
bayan ina ci abinci would sound like “after I am/was eating food” – unusual.
bayan zan ci abinci = after I will eat food (possible, but it feels a bit clumsy; Hausa usually just uses na ci from the perspective of the later action).

So in ordinary speech:

Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci.
= I want to drink tea after I have eaten (my meal).

The perfective na ci makes sense because the eating is finished before the tea-drinking starts.

Could I move the bayan-clause to the beginning, like: Bayan na ci abinci, ina so in sha shayi?

Yes, that is completely correct:

Bayan na ci abinci, ina so in sha shayi.
Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci.

Both mean the same thing. The difference is just emphasis and style:

Starting with Bayan na ci abinci… slightly emphasizes the time setting (“After I’ve eaten…”).
Keeping bayan at the end is very common too and sounds natural in everyday speech.

So you can safely use either order.

Can I leave out abinci and just say bayan na ci if the context is clear?

Yes, in casual conversation Hausa speakers often drop abinci when it’s obvious you’re talking about a meal.

So you might hear:

Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci.
= I want to drink tea after I have eaten.

However, in careful or beginner-friendly speech, bayan na ci abinci is clearer.
Dropping abinci relies on shared context (everyone knows you mean “eat a meal,” not “eat something random”).

How would I say “I don’t want to drink tea after I eat (food)” using the same structure?

You negate Ina so… with ba … ba:

Ba na so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci.

Breakdown:

Ba na so = I do not want
in sha shayi = to drink tea
bayan na ci abinci = after I have eaten food

Full meaning: I don’t want to drink tea after I’ve eaten.

What exactly does shayi mean? Is it just “tea,” or something more specific? And why do we need sha shayi?

shayi means tea (the drink).

sha = to drink
shayi = tea

So sha shayi literally means drink tea.

Hausa often repeats a verb plus its object like this:

sha ruwa = drink water
ci abinci = eat food
sha shayi = drink tea

There’s nothing special or idiomatic about the repetition; it’s just verb + noun (drink + tea).

How should I pronounce Ina so in sha shayi bayan na ci abinci?

Approximate pronunciation (using English-like spelling):

Ina → ee-nah
so → soh (like “so” in “so what”, not “saw”)
in → een
sha → shah (like “sha” in “shark” without the rk)
shayi → shah-yee (2 syllables)
bayan → bah-yan (the y is like English “y”)
na → nah
ci → chee
abinci → ah-been-chee

So the whole sentence:

Ee-nah soh een shah shah-yee bah-yan nah chee ah-been-chee.

Stress in Hausa is relatively light and often near the end of the word, so try not to make one syllable too heavy, as English speakers often do.