A Litinin da Talata bana zuwa kasuwa.

A is a preposition that usually translates as “on / at / in” when talking about times and places.

In this sentence it means “on”:

• A Litinin da Talata = On Monday and Tuesday

You use a before:

• days: a Litinin (on Monday), a Talata (on Tuesday)
• times of day: a safiya (in the morning)
• places: a kasuwa (at the market), a Kano (in Kano)

So A Litinin da Talata is the normal way to say “on Monday and Tuesday” in Hausa.

By default, with bana zuwa (a habitual / present form), A Litinin da Talata bana zuwa kasuwa is usually understood as:

• “On Mondays and Tuesdays I (usually) don’t go to the market.”

So it suggests a habit or regular schedule.

Context can also make it mean “on Monday and Tuesday (of this week / in this particular period) I’m not going,” but if you really wanted to stress just this specific Monday and Tuesday, you might say something like:

• A ran Litinin da ran Talata bana zuwa kasuwa.
  (“On the day Monday and the day Tuesday I’m not going to the market.”)

or add a time phrase like “this week”.

So: the sentence naturally has a habitual / general feel, not just one specific pair of days.

Yes. Here da means “and”:

• Litinin da Talata = Monday and Tuesday

Hausa uses da to join:

• two nouns: Litinin da Talata (Monday and Tuesday)
• two names: Ali da Maryam (Ali and Maryam)
• two pronouns: ni da kai (me and you)

In other contexts da can also mean “with” (comitative), e.g.:

• Na je kasuwa da abokina. – I went to the market with my friend.

But in your sentence it is simply the normal word for “and.”

The “I” is built into the form bana.

Compare:

• Ina zuwa kasuwa. – I go / I am going to the market.
• Bana zuwa kasuwa. – I don’t go / I am not going to the market.

Here:

• ina = “I” + (present / habitual aspect, positive)
• bana = “I” + (present / habitual aspect, negative)

So instead of saying something like “Ni ba ina zuwa kasuwa ba”, Hausa uses these combined forms (ina, kana, yana, … / bana, ba ka, ba ta, …) to express both the subject and the aspect.

That’s why you don’t see a separate word that only means “I” here: bana already contains that information.

In this function (negative “I [don’t] …” in the present/habitual), you will see both spellings in real texts:

• bana zuwa kasuwa
• ba na zuwa kasuwa

They are pronounced the same in normal speech. Many modern grammars and textbooks prefer the single-word spelling here:

• Bana zuwa kasuwa. – I don’t go / am not going to the market.

So for learning purposes you can safely treat bana as one unit meaning roughly “I (am) not …-ing / I don’t …” in the present or habitual sense.

The important point is the structure, not the spacing:
negative ba + 1st person continuous na → bana / ba na.

They are spelled the same but used in different positions and have different tones in speech, so native speakers don’t get confused.

1. bana = “I don’t / I am not … (doing something)”

   • Comes directly before a verb or verbal noun:
     
     • Bana zuwa kasuwa. – I don’t go to the market.
     • Bana son shayi. – I don’t like tea.

2. bana = “this year”

   • Used as a time noun, often with a (“in / this”):
     
     • A bana zan yi tafiya. – This year I will travel.
     • Bana ina aiki sosai. – This year I am working a lot.

So in your sentence, bana is clearly the negative verb form because it is followed by zuwa (“go(ing)”) and not by something like zan (“I will”) or another time word.

Hausa doesn’t have an article like English “the” or “a”.

The word kasuwa by itself can mean:

• “a market”
• “the market”
• or even “market(s)” in a general sense,

depending entirely on context.

So:

• Bana zuwa kasuwa.
  can be “I don’t go to the market” or “I don’t go to markets”, depending on what you’re talking about.

If you really need to stress “a certain (one) market”, you can add other words:

• wata kasuwa – a (certain) market
• kasuwa guda – one market
• kasuwar nan – this (particular) market

But in ordinary sentences, no article is used, and context supplies “the” or “a” in English translation.

Yes, that word order is correct and natural:

• A Litinin da Talata bana zuwa kasuwa.
• Bana zuwa kasuwa a Litinin da Talata.

Both are grammatical. The difference is mainly one of emphasis / focus:

• Starting with the time phrase A Litinin da Talata puts a little more focus on the days (“As for Mondays and Tuesdays, I don’t go to the market.”).
• Putting the time at the end (… a Litinin da Talata) sounds a bit more neutral, with the main focus on the action “I don’t go to the market.”

In everyday speech, you will hear both orders.

They are both negative, but they differ in aspect / tense and structure:

1. Bana zuwa kasuwa.

   • Uses the present/habitual negative (bana).
   • Means “I don’t go / I am not going to the market” (habit, ongoing situation, general truth).

2. Ban je kasuwa ba.

   • Uses the perfective verb je (“go”) with the discontinuous negative ba … ba and the pronoun fused: ban = ba + na.
   • Typically: “I didn’t go to the market.” (a completed action in the past)

Examples:

• Kullum bana zuwa kasuwa. – I never/usually don’t go to the market.
• Jiya ban je kasuwa ba. – Yesterday I didn’t go to the market.

So bana zuwa talks about a habit or ongoing situation, while ban je … ba talks about a single completed event, often in the past.

There is a verb je which means “to go”, but in many very common expressions Hausa uses zuwa instead:

• Ina zuwa kasuwa. – I go / I am going to the market.
• Bana zuwa kasuwa. – I don’t go / I am not going to the market.

Technically:

• zo = to come
• je = to go
• zuwa is the verbal noun / infinitive form often used where English would use “to go / to come” or simply “to”.

In everyday Hausa, zuwa kasuwa strongly functions as “(go/come) to the market”, so learners can treat zuwa here as the normal way to say “go (to)” in this kind of sentence.

You can use je in other tenses, for example:

• Na je kasuwa. – I went to the market.
• Ban je kasuwa ba. – I didn’t go to the market.

But with the progressive/habitual pattern ina / bana, the fixed expression (ba)na zuwa kasuwa is very common and natural.

In careful, standard Hausa, it is better to keep the A:

• A Litinin da Talata bana zuwa kasuwa.

Without a, Litinin da Talata looks more like a bare noun phrase (“Monday and Tuesday”) that could be misread as a subject in writing.

In fast colloquial speech, some speakers might sometimes omit a before time words, but for a learner and in writing, you should:

• keep the preposition a before days and times when you mean “on / at / in”.

So: use “A Litinin da Talata …” as your standard form.

According to standard Hausa orthography:

• Names of days of the week are treated as proper nouns and are capitalized:
  • Litinin, Talata, Laraba, Alhamis, Juma’a, Asabar, Lahadi

Also:

• The first word of the sentence is capitalized: here that is A.
• Names of people and places are also capitalized: Ali, Maryam, Kano, etc.

In informal writing (texts, social media), people often use all lowercase, but for correct written Hausa you should capitalize Litinin and Talata as in your sentence.