Learn Hardcore Hausa: A Asabar ni ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki. - On Saturday I wash the kitchen and the room.

Different people do different chores on different days.
You’re correcting someone: A Asabar ni ina wanke ɗakin girki… – No, on Saturday it’s ME who washes the kitchen…

Grammatically, ni is optional here; it just adds emphasis.

Could I say the sentence without ni? Would it still be correct?

Yes, you can say:

A Asabar ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki.

That is fully correct and a bit more neutral: On Saturday I wash the kitchen and the room.

With ni you highlight who does it; without ni you just state the fact.

What is the difference between ina wanke, na wanke, and zan wanke?

These show different aspects/tenses:

ina wanke – I am washing / I (usually) wash
- Progressive or present/habitual, depending on context and time expressions.
na wanke – I washed / I have washed
- Perfective: a completed action, usually in the past.
zan wanke – I will wash
- Future.

In your sentence, ina wanke fits because you’re talking about what happens (usually) on Saturdays.

Does A Asabar ina wanke… mean I am washing right now, or that I usually wash on Saturdays?

By itself, ina wanke is “I am washing”.

But when you add a repeated time expression like A Asabar (On Saturdays / On Saturday as a regular thing), Hausa speakers will usually understand it as a habitual:

A Asabar ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki.
≈ On Saturdays I (usually) wash the kitchen and the room.

If you were talking about this specific coming Saturday, you might add a word like mai zuwa (coming) or context would clarify:

A Asabar mai zuwa ina wanke ɗakin girki… – This coming Saturday I’m washing the kitchen…

What exactly does ɗakin girki mean? Why not just a single word for “kitchen”?

ɗakin girki is a genitive (possessive) phrase:

ɗaki – room
girki – cooking / meal preparation
ɗakin girki – room of cooking → kitchen

The -n at the end of ɗakin links the two nouns and often carries definiteness: ɗakin girki ≈ the kitchen.

Modern Hausa also sometimes uses loanwords like kicin (kitchen), but ɗakin girki is the standard descriptive form.

Why does the first ɗaki have -n (as in ɗakin girki) but the second one is just ɗaki?

They play different roles:

ɗakin girki
- This is a compound/genitive: room of cooking.
- The -n is the linker that joins ɗaki and girki.
da ɗaki
- Here ɗaki stands alone as a simple noun: a room / the room.
- There is no second noun after it to link to, so no -n.

So the -n appears because ɗaki is directly followed by another noun (girki) to form one phrase. When ɗaki stands alone, you just say ɗaki.

Does da here mean “and” or “with”?

In this sentence, da means “and”:

ɗakin girki da ɗaki – the kitchen and the room.

Hausa da can mean several things depending on context:

“and” (joining nouns/phrases):
- ruwa da burodi – water and bread
“with” (accompaniment/tool):
- na zo da abokina – I came with my friend
- yanke da wuka – cut with a knife

Here, because it’s simply joining two things being washed, it is “and”.

Does ɗaki mean “room” in general, or specifically “bedroom”?

Literally, ɗaki means room, but in everyday Hausa it very often implies “bedroom”, because that’s the main enclosed room in many houses.

So in ɗakin girki da ɗaki people will usually understand:

ɗakin girki – the kitchen
ɗaki – the (main) room / bedroom

If you need to be very explicit, you can say ɗakin bacci – bedroom (sleeping room).

Could I change the word order to Ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki a Asabar?

Yes, that is grammatical and understandable:

Ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki a Asabar.

Meaning is basically the same. The differences are in focus and style:

A Asabar ni ina wanke… – starts by highlighting the time and then who does it.
Ina wanke… a Asabar – starts with the activity and adds the time later.

All are valid; speakers choose according to what they want to emphasize.

Why is Asabar capitalized? Can it be lowercase?

In most modern Hausa writing influenced by English conventions, names of days are capitalized:

Litinin, Talata, Laraba, Alhamis, Juma’a, Asabar, Lahadi

So Asabar with a capital A is the standard in many texts.

You will also see lowercase asabar in less formal writing (text messages, social media), but in careful writing, capitalization is preferred.

How would I say “On Saturdays I usually wash the kitchen and the room” more explicitly, showing it’s a regular habit?

Your original sentence already strongly suggests a habit, but to make the habitual meaning even clearer, you could say:

A kowace Asabar ina kan wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki.
- a kowace Asabar – every Saturday
- ina kan wanke – I usually/regularly wash

or a bit simpler:

A kowace Asabar ina wanke ɗakin girki da ɗaki. – Every Saturday I wash the kitchen and the room.

Are there other common verbs I could use instead of wanke when talking about cleaning a room?

Yes. wanke normally means to wash (with water), often used for dishes, clothes, and things you physically wash. For rooms, Hausa also uses:

goge – to wipe/sweep/brush
- ina goge ɗaki – I’m wiping/sweeping the room.
tsabtace – to clean / make clean (more general)
- ina tsabtace ɗakin girki – I’m cleaning the kitchen.

So depending on what you mean:

Washing floors/walls with water: ina wanke ɗaki
Sweeping or wiping: ina goge ɗaki
General cleaning: ina tsabtace ɗaki.