Learn Hardcore Hausa: A satin da ya gabata, wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure a gari namu. - Last week a certain man and a certain woman got married in our town.

a – preposition meaning in / at / on. Here it means in / during.
satin – week (from the base form sati, with an extra -n, explained in the next answer).
da – here it functions like that / which, introducing a relative clause about the week.
ya – he/it (masculine); it refers back to satin (week).
gabata – to pass / to have passed / to go by (of time).

So a satin da ya gabata is literally:

“in the week that has passed”, i.e. last week.

Why is it satin and not just sati?

Hausa often adds a short linking consonant -n or -r to a noun when:

it is followed by another noun, or
it is followed by a relative clause (like da ya gabata).

Here:

Base noun: sati – week
With linker: sati + n + da ya gabata → satin da ya gabata

So satin is simply sati with this linker -n, connecting it to da ya gabata (“that has passed”).

You will see this pattern a lot:

gida (house) → gidan su – their house
mota (car) → motar malam – the teacher’s car

Is the da in satin da ya gabata the same word as the da in wani namiji da wata mace?

Yes, it’s the same word da, but it has different functions depending on context.

In satin da ya gabata
- da acts like a relative marker, roughly “that / which”.
- satin da ya gabata = the week *that has passed*.
In wani namiji da wata mace
- da is a coordinating conjunction, meaning and.
- wani namiji da wata mace = a man *and a woman*.

So it’s the same word da, but it can mean:

that/which (linking to a clause), or
and/with (linking two nouns),

depending on where it appears.

What exactly does ya gabata mean, and could I replace it with something else?

ya – he/it (masculine), referring to satin (week).
gabata – to pass / to be past (about time or events).

So ya gabata = “it has passed / it passed.”

In this expression:

satin da ya gabata = the week that has passed → last week.

You can often hear ya wuce with a very similar meaning:

satin da ya wuce – the week that passed → also last week.

Both gabata and wuce are common in time expressions for “previous / past” something.

What do wani and wata mean, and why are they different?

Wani and wata are indefinite determiners (like a kind of “a certain / some”), and they agree with gender:

wani – used with masculine nouns
wata – used with feminine nouns

In the sentence:

wani namiji – a (certain) man
- namiji (man) is masculine → uses wani.
wata mace – a (certain) woman
- mace (woman) is feminine → uses wata.

They are often a bit more specific than a bare English “a”, closer to:

“a certain man” / “some man”
“a certain woman” / “some woman”

Can I leave out wani and wata and just say namiji da mace? What changes?

Yes, you can say:

Namiji da mace sun yi aure a gari namu.

That is grammatically fine. The difference is in nuance:

With wani/wata
- wani namiji da wata mace
- Suggests some specific man and some specific woman, but you’re not naming them.
- Feels like “a certain man and (a) certain woman”.
Without wani/wata
- namiji da mace
- More generic: a man and a woman in a neutral, less “story-like” way.

In many narrative or storytelling contexts, wani/wata are very common to introduce new, specific but unnamed characters.

Why is the verb sun yi (they did) and not something like ya yi (he did) or ta yi (she did)?

Because the subject is plural: a man and a woman, so Hausa uses a 3rd person plural verb form.

sun – 3rd person plural perfective marker: they did / they have
yi – do, the main verb.

So:

wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure
- a man and a woman *did (got) married → *they married.

If the subject were one person, you’d use:

ya yi – he did (3rd masc. singular)
ta yi – she did (3rd fem. singular)

But here we have two people together, so sun is correct.

What does yi aure literally mean, and is that the normal way to say “to get married”?

Literally:

yi – to do / to make
aure – marriage (a verbal noun).

So yi aure = “do marriage” → to marry / to get married.

Yes, this is the standard, everyday way to express getting married:

Sun yi aure. – They got married.
Zan yi aure. – I will get married.
Ta taba yin aure. – She has been married before.

It works just like many Hausa expressions where yi (do) combines with a noun:

yi magana – to speak, talk (do speech)
yi shan ruwa – to drink water (do drinking of water)

Could I say sun yi aure da juna? What does that add?

Yes, you can say:

Sun yi aure da juna.

Breakdown:

da – with
juna – each other / one another

So sun yi aure da juna = they got married to each other.

In many contexts, just sun yi aure is enough, because it’s obvious they married each other. Da juna simply spells out the reciprocity (“with each other”), for emphasis or clarity. It’s optional here.

In a gari namu, what exactly do a, gari, and namu mean?

Breakdown:

a – preposition in / at / on. Here: in / at.
gari – town / city / settlement.
namu – ours / our (one), an independent possessive pronoun that emphasizes “our”.

So a gari namu literally:

“in town ours” → in our town, with a bit of emphasis on our.

Compared to a simple possessive clitic, namu has a flavour of:

“our town (as opposed to someone else’s)”
“this town of ours”

What’s the difference between gari namu and garinmu?

Both can mean “our town”, but they feel slightly different:

garinmu
- gari
  - linker -n
    - mu (our) → garinmu
- The normal, compact possessive form, like English “our town”.
- Neutral, everyday way to say it.
gari namu
- gari (town) + namu (ours).
- namu is an independent possessive with a bit more emphasis.
- Feels closer to “this town of ours / that town of ours”, or our very own town.

In your sentence, a gari namu highlights that it’s happening in our (own) town, not somewhere else.
You could also say a garinmu with almost the same meaning, just slightly less emphatic.

Can I move the time phrase to the end and say: Wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure a gari namu satin da ya gabata?

Yes, that is grammatically correct:

Wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure a gari namu satin da ya gabata.

Meaning stays the same: A man and a woman got married in our town last week.

However:

Starting with the time phrase (A satin da ya gabata, …) is very natural in Hausa storytelling and narration.
It sets the time frame first, then tells you what happened.

Both word orders are possible; the original one simply feels more like natural narrative style.

Can I drop the a and just say Satin da ya gabata, wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure a gari namu?

You can hear sentences without a, like:

Satin da ya gabata, wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure…

and they will still be understood as “Last week, a man and a woman…”.

But:

Including a (A satin da ya gabata) is more typical and smooth, because a clearly marks the time expression as a temporal setting (“in the week that passed”).
Without a, satin da ya gabata feels a bit more like a bare noun phrase, though context usually makes it clear.

So, A satin da ya gabata is usually the better, more natural choice here.

Could a Hausa speaker say A makon da ya gabata instead, and what’s the difference between mako and sati?

Yes, a Hausa speaker might say:

A makon da ya gabata, wani namiji da wata mace sun yi aure a gari namu.

Here:

mako – also means week.
makon – mako
- linker -n.

mako and sati both mean week, and usage varies by region and speaker. Broadly:

mako – very common, widely used.
sati – also common; in many areas it’s essentially interchangeable with mako.

So:

a satin da ya gabata
a makon da ya gabata

Both are natural ways to say “last week”, with only a lexical choice (which word for “week”) differing.