Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tsabta tana da muhimmanci a ɗakin girki, datti ba ya da kyau. - Cleanliness is important in the kitchen; dirt is not good.

As a noun, tsabta can mean:
- cleanliness
- neatness
- purity / being clean
It also appears in structures like:
- gida mai tsabta – a clean house (literally “a house that has cleanliness”)

So in Tsabta tana da muhimmanci…, tsabta is an abstract thing, “cleanliness”, which then “has importance.”

Why is tana used with tsabta? Is tsabta considered feminine?

Yes. In Hausa, every noun is grammatically masculine or feminine, even non‑human and abstract nouns.

tsabta is treated as feminine, so you use ta‑ / tana for it:
- ita – she / it (feminine)
- tana – she/it is (progressive / “be+ing”)
- tsabta tana da muhimmanci – “cleanliness (she/it) has importance / is important”

Compare that with datti (dirt), which is masculine, so it takes ya:

shi – he / it (masculine)
yana / ya – he/it is
datti ba ya da kyau – “dirt (he/it) is not good / has no goodness”

So the form of tana / ya is chosen because of the grammatical gender of the noun, not because cleanliness or dirt are literally male or female.

What does da mean in tana da muhimmanci? Is it “with” or “have”?

The word da has several uses in Hausa. Two very common ones are:

“with / and”
As part of a “have” construction.

In tana da muhimmanci, it is the “have” use:

tana da muhimmanci
literally: “it is having importance” / “it has importance”
idiomatically: “it is important”

More examples of this pattern:

Ina da kuɗi. – I have money.
Gidan nan yana da faɗi. – This house is spacious (lit. “has width”).
Tsabta tana da matuƙar muhimmanci. – Cleanliness is very important.

So here da helps express a state of having, which often corresponds to “to be X” in English.

Could we say tsabta muhimmanci ce instead of tsabta tana da muhimmanci?

Not exactly; that would sound odd.

muhimmanci itself is a noun: “importance.”
ce is the copula used with feminine nouns: something like “is.”

So tsabta muhimmanci ce would literally be “cleanliness is importance,” which is grammatically possible but not idiomatic in normal speech.

More natural alternatives are:

Tsabta tana da muhimmanci. – Cleanliness is important.
Tsabta tana da matuƙar muhimmanci. – Cleanliness is very important.
Tsabta muhimmiyya ce. – Cleanliness is (a) matter of importance.
(Here muhimmiyya is another noun related to “importance”.)

The everyday, most natural way to say “X is important” is X yana/tana da muhimmanci.

How is a ɗakin girki built? What do a, ɗaki, and girki each mean?

The phrase a ɗakin girki breaks down like this:

a – a preposition meaning “in / at / on”
ɗaki – “room”
ɗakin – the genitive (linking) form of ɗaki, used before another noun
girki – “cooking” / “cuisine”

So ɗakin girki literally means “the room of cooking”, i.e. “the kitchen.”
Then a ɗakin girki = “in the kitchen” / “in a kitchen.”

Full breakdown of the sentence part:

… a ɗakin girki – “…in the kitchen”

How do you pronounce the letter ɗ in ɗakin?

The Hausa letter ɗ represents an implosive “d” sound that doesn’t exist in standard English, but you can get close.

Regular d: put your tongue behind your upper teeth and push air out to say “d.”
ɗ: put your tongue in a similar place, but slightly pull air inward (or at least don’t push air out) while voicing the sound. It’s like a “swallowed d.”

For learners, an approximate strategy is:

Say ɗ almost like a very clear “d”, but with a tighter, more “inside” articulation.
Native speakers will still understand you if you use a plain d, but it’s good to be aware there is a difference between:
- ɗaki – room
- daki – (would be read as something different or odd in careful orthography)

Why is there no word for “the” in a ɗakin girki? How do you say “the kitchen” vs “a kitchen”?

Hausa does not have separate words for “the” or “a/an.” There are no articles like in English.

ɗaki can mean “a room” or “the room,” depending on context.
ɗakin girki can mean “a kitchen” or “the kitchen.”

Context usually tells you whether it’s specific or general:

Tsabta tana da muhimmanci a ɗakin girki.
In English we choose “in the kitchen” because it sounds more natural for the general statement.
Mun goge ɗakin girki. – “We cleaned the kitchen.” (some particular kitchen, understood from context)

So a ɗakin girki covers both “in a kitchen” and “in the kitchen.”

What does datti cover? Does it mean trash, dirt, or something else?

datti is a general word for unwanted, dirty stuff:

physical dirt, filth, mess
trash / rubbish / garbage
anything seen as unclean or disgusting

Examples:

Kada ka saka datti a nan. – Don’t put trash here.
Dattin jiki – body dirt (e.g. sweat, grime).
Wannan abu datti ne. – This thing is filthy.

In datti ba ya da kyau, it means “dirt / filth / trash is not good” – both literally (in a kitchen) and possibly with a sense of “it’s undesirable.”

How does the negative ba ya da kyau work? Where is the verb “to be”?

Hausa doesn’t use a separate verb exactly like English “to be” here. Instead, it uses:

the progressive/subject form (y(a) / yana / ya)
plus da (“have”)
plus a noun like kyau (“goodness/beauty”)

For the positive:

ya/ yana da kyau – “it is good / it has goodness”

For the negative, Hausa wraps the subject in ba …:

ba ya da kyau – literally:
- ba – not
- ya – he/it (masc. subject)
- da kyau – has goodness
- → “it does not have goodness” = “it is not good.”

So the negative “to be good” structure here is:

[Noun] + ba + (ya / tana / suna, etc.) + da + kyau

Example:

Abincin nan ba ya da kyau. – This food is not good.
Datti ba ya da kyau. – Dirt is not good.

Is there a difference between ba ya da kyau, ba shi da kyau, and mara kyau?

They’re closely related, but there are some nuances:

ba ya da kyau
- Uses ya (3rd person masc. subject).
- Very common pattern for “X is not good / does not have goodness.”
- Datti ba ya da kyau. – Dirt is not good.
ba shi da kyau
- Uses shi (3rd person masc. independent pronoun) instead of ya.
- Often used especially when the pronoun is more explicit or emphasized, or in some dialects as the normal form:
  - Datti ba shi da kyau. – (Roughly same meaning: “Dirt is not good.”)
- In many everyday contexts, ba ya da kyau and ba shi da kyau are both understood as “it’s not good”; choice can be regional or stylistic.
mara kyau
- mara
  - kyau = “lacking goodness,” functioning like an adjective: “bad, ugly, not good.”
- Often used to describe nouns directly:
  - abu mara kyau – a bad/ugly thing
  - hoto mara kyau – a bad/ugly picture
- You might say:
  - Datti abu ne mara kyau. – Dirt is a bad/ugly thing.

So:

ba ya/shi da kyau = “is not good / has no goodness” (sentence-level).
mara kyau = “not-good / bad” (adjectival or describing a noun).

Can we move a ɗakin girki to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes, you can front the location phrase for emphasis or style, just as in English:

A ɗakin girki, tsabta tana da muhimmanci; datti ba ya da kyau.
– In the kitchen, cleanliness is important; dirt is not good.

The meaning stays the same; the difference is mainly focus:

Original: emphasizes cleanliness, then mentions the place.
Fronted: emphasizes the location (the kitchen) first, then talks about cleanliness there.

Are there other natural ways to express the same idea in Hausa?

Yes, several variations would sound natural, for example:

Tsabta tana da matuƙar muhimmanci a ɗakin girki, datti kuma ba shi da kyau.
– Cleanliness is very important in the kitchen, and dirt is not good.
A ɗakin girki, tsabta muhimmiyya ce, datti kuwa abu ne mara kyau.
– In the kitchen, cleanliness is a matter of importance, while dirt is a bad thing.
A kicin, tsabta tana da muhimmanci sosai, datti ba ya da kyau ko kaɗan.
– In the kitchen, cleanliness is very important; dirt is not good at all.
(Here kicin is a common loanword from “kitchen.”)

All of these keep the same core idea: cleanliness is valued in the kitchen, and dirt is undesirable.