Learn Hardcore Hausa: Bayan aure ɗin, na ji ƙishirwa sosai na sha ruwa da shayi. - After the wedding, I felt very thirsty and drank water and tea.

So Bayan aure ɗin means “After the (particular) wedding”, not just after a wedding in general. Hausa often uses -n / -r / ɗin / ɗin nan to make a noun definite or “already known in the conversation or context.”

Why is it aure ɗin and not something like auren?

aure is the basic noun “marriage / wedding.”
auren is a genitive form that normally must be followed by another noun:

auren Ali = Ali’s marriage
aurenmu = our wedding

If you just want to say “the wedding” as a stand‑alone noun phrase, you use the base form aure plus the definite marker:

aure ɗin = the wedding
bayan aure ɗin = after the wedding

So bayan auren by itself would feel incomplete; it sounds like “after the marriage of…(who?)”

What exactly does bayan mean here?

bayan is a preposition meaning “after” (in time or space).

In this sentence:

Bayan aure ɗin = After the wedding

Common similar patterns:

bayan haka = after that
bayan aiki = after work
bayan wannan rana = after this day

What does na mean in na ji and na sha?

Here na is a subject pronoun + perfective marker meaning “I (did …)”.

na ji = I felt / I heard / I experienced
na sha = I drank

So:

na ji ƙishirwa sosai = I felt very thirsty
na sha ruwa da shayi = I drank water and tea

Hausa normally repeats this na before each new verb phrase even if the subject is the same. That’s why you see na ji … na sha … instead of just one na for both.

Is ji literally “hear”? How can na ji ƙishirwa mean “I was thirsty”?

Yes, ji most literally means “to hear / to feel / to experience”. It’s used for perceiving or feeling things, both physically and emotionally.

So:

na ji ƙishirwa = I felt thirst → I felt thirsty
na ji zafi = I felt pain / heat → I felt hot / I felt pain
na ji daɗi = I felt pleasure → I enjoyed it, I felt good

In this sentence, na ji ƙishirwa sosai is best translated as “I felt very thirsty / I was very thirsty.”

Why is it ƙishirwa sosai and not sosai ƙishirwa?

In Hausa, intensifiers like sosai (“very, a lot”) usually come after the word they intensify:

ƙishirwa sosai = very thirsty
gajiya sosai = very tired
sanyi sosai = very cold

Putting sosai before the noun (sosai ƙishirwa) is not the normal pattern and sounds wrong or at least very odd.

Could I say ina ƙishirwa sosai instead of na ji ƙishirwa sosai?

You can, but the nuance changes:

na ji ƙishirwa sosai (perfective):
- “I felt very thirsty” (at that time, as a completed state/event)
- Fits well in a narrative or story about what happened.
ina ƙishirwa sosai (imperfective / progressive):
- “I am very thirsty” (right now, ongoing)
- Used more for a current situation.

In the sentence Bayan aure ɗin, na ji ƙishirwa sosai…, the speaker is narrating what happened after the wedding, so the perfective (na ji) is more natural.

There’s no word like “so” or “therefore”. How do we know na sha ruwa da shayi means “so I drank water and tea”?

Hausa often shows cause‑and‑effect simply by putting events in sequence, especially with repeated na:

Na ji ƙishirwa sosai, na sha ruwa…
⇒ “I felt very thirsty, (so) I drank water…”

The causal link is understood from context.

If you want to be more explicit, you could add:

… na ji ƙishirwa sosai, sai na sha ruwa…
… na ji ƙishirwa sosai, don haka na sha ruwa…

sai or don haka correspond more clearly to “so / then / therefore”.

What does sha mean and can it be used for drinks other than water and tea?

sha means “to drink”, and more broadly “to consume (a drink)” or “to take (a medicine, a drug, etc.)”.

You can use it with many liquids:

sha ruwa = drink water
sha shayi = drink tea
sha madara = drink milk
sha magani = take medicine

So na sha ruwa da shayi is simply “I drank water and tea.”

What does da mean in ruwa da shayi? Is it only “and” or also “with”?

In ruwa da shayi, da functions as “and”:

ruwa da shayi = water and tea

But da is quite flexible:

“and” (joining similar items)
- abinci da ruwa = food and water
“with” (accompaniment / instrument / manner)
- na tafi da shi = I went with him
- yanke da wuka = cut with a knife

Here, it’s clearly the “and” use.

Why is na repeated: na ji ƙishirwa sosai na sha ruwa da shayi? Could we drop the second na?

In good, natural Hausa, you normally repeat the subject pronoun with each new finite verb:

na ji ƙishirwa sosai, na sha ruwa da shayi

Dropping the second na (…ƙishirwa sosai sha ruwa…) is not correct; it sounds like you glued two verbs together without a subject marker.

So:

Keep the second na.
The repetition is normal and expected, not “too much.”

Could Bayan aure ɗin be moved to another position in the sentence?

Yes, time expressions in Hausa are fairly flexible. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

Bayan aure ɗin, na ji ƙishirwa sosai na sha ruwa da shayi.
- Neutral storytelling: “After the wedding, I felt very thirsty and drank water and tea.”
Na ji ƙishirwa sosai bayan aure ɗin, na sha ruwa da shayi.
- Slight extra focus on the time when you felt thirsty (after the wedding, not before).
Na ji ƙishirwa sosai, bayan aure ɗin na sha ruwa da shayi.
- Less common, and may sound a bit clumsy here. Option 1 is the cleanest.

Position at the start is very common for setting the time frame in a narrative.

Is there any plural or gender agreement happening in this sentence?

No. In this sentence there is no visible gender or plural agreement:

na = first‑person singular “I” (same form regardless of gender)
aure, ƙishirwa, ruwa, shayi are all nouns without any agreement marking here.

Hausa does have gender (masc./fem.) and plural on many nouns and sometimes on adjectives or pronouns, but this particular sentence doesn’t show those kinds of agreement.

How would I say the same thing more explicitly as two separate sentences?

You could simply split it into two clear sentences:

Bayan aure ɗin, na ji ƙishirwa sosai. Na sha ruwa da shayi.
- After the wedding, I was very thirsty. I drank water and tea.

This is perfectly natural in Hausa and is sometimes stylistically cleaner, especially in writing.