Learn Hardcore Hausa: Aikin jiya ya yi min wahala sosai. - Yesterday’s work was very hard for me.

So aikin jiya is literally “the work of yesterday” → “yesterday’s work”.
Grammatically, it’s a possessive/genitive construction: aiki-n jiya (work-of yesterday).

In the sentence, is aikin jiya the subject? What is ya doing there then?

Functionally, aikin jiya is the subject/topic of the sentence:

Aikin jiya = yesterday’s work

But Hausa often uses a resumptive pronoun even when the noun is already there.

So the structure is:

Aikin jiya – topic/subject noun phrase (yesterday’s work)
ya – 3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun, referring back to aikin jiya
yi – verb (“do/make”)
min – to/for me
wahala sosai – a lot of trouble

Literally: “As for yesterday’s work, it did to-me (gave me) a lot of trouble.”

So aikin jiya and ya are linked: ya stands for aikin jiya in the verb phrase.

Why is it ya yi and not just some single verb like “to trouble”?

Hausa often uses light verb constructions with yi (“do, make”) plus a noun:

yi wahala – literally do trouble → be difficult / cause trouble
yi ƙoƙari – do effort → make an effort
yi magana – do speech → speak

In ya yi min wahala sosai:

ya – he/it (referring to the work)
yi – did
wahala – trouble, difficulty

So it’s literally “it did me trouble a lot”, idiomatically “it was very hard for me / it gave me a hard time.”

There is a verb wahala / wahalar da, but yi wahala is the most common everyday way to say “was difficult / caused trouble.”

What exactly does min mean, and how is it formed?

Min means “to me / for me” here.

It’s formed from:

ma – preposition meaning to / for
ni – pronoun me / I

These combine and contract:

ma + ni → mani → mini / min (depending on context and speed)

So ya yi min wahala sosai = “it did to me much trouble.”

You will also see similar forms with other persons:

ma + ka → maka – to you (m.sg.)
ma + ki → miki – to you (f.sg.)
ma + su → musu – to them

Could I say mani instead of min here? Is there any difference?

You can say mani in many contexts; it is also “to me / for me.”

Differences:

min is clitic-like, shorter, more reduced, very common in fast, informal speech and before consonants.
mani is a bit fuller and clearer, sometimes feels slightly more emphatic or careful.

In this sentence:

Aikin jiya ya yi min wahala sosai. – totally natural, maybe the most typical.
Aikin jiya ya yi mani wahala sosai. – also possible; might sound a bit more careful or emphasized depending on tone.

Both are understood as “it gave me a lot of trouble.”

Is wahala a noun or a verb here?

In this sentence, wahala is a noun meaning trouble, hardship, difficulty.

The verbal meaning “to trouble / to be difficult” is created by combining the noun with yi:

yi wahala = do trouble → be troublesome / be hard / cause difficulties

So the verb is really “yi”, and wahala is its object/complement.

Compare with English:

“give me trouble” – give is the verb, trouble is a noun.

Hausa has a related verbal structure wahalar da (wani) = “to trouble (someone), to bother (someone)”, but that’s not what’s happening in this exact sentence.

What does sosai add to the meaning, and where does it usually go in the sentence?

Sosai is an adverb/intensifier meaning very, very much, a lot, extremely.

In Aikin jiya ya yi min wahala sosai, it modifies wahala (the degree of trouble):

wahala sosai = a lot of trouble / very hard / extremely difficult

Position:

It usually follows the word or phrase it intensifies, so the end of the sentence is a natural place for it here.

You could sometimes hear:

Ya yi min wahala sosai.
Ya wahala sosai. (in other structures)

But generally, keeping sosai near the end and after the main predicate is very common.

How do we know the sentence is talking about the past? Is it from jiya or from ya yi?

Both contribute, but in slightly different ways:

ya yi
- ya
  - yi is the perfective form of the verb: it refers to a completed action/event.
- By default, in a narrative, this is usually understood as past unless context says otherwise.
jiya
- jiya literally means “yesterday”, so it explicitly anchors the time to the previous day.

So:

ya yi → completed action (often past)
jiya → specifically yesterday

Without jiya, ya yi min wahala sosai could just mean “it gave me a lot of trouble” (past/complete event) without saying when.

Can I change the word order, for example: Jiya aikin ya yi min wahala sosai?

Yes, Hausa allows some flexibility in word order for emphasis and information structure.

Original:

Aikin jiya ya yi min wahala sosai.
- Focuses a bit on “yesterday’s work” as a specific unit.

Variant:

Jiya aikin ya yi min wahala sosai.
- Puts jiya (yesterday) at the front, making the time more prominent:
  - “Yesterday, the work really gave me a hard time.”

Both are acceptable; the meaning is essentially the same. The change mostly affects which element is highlighted in the flow of speech.

If the speaker is a woman, does anything in this sentence change?

No, the sentence stays exactly the same.

Reason:

ya refers to aikin (the work), not to the speaker.
aiki is grammatically masculine in Hausa, so its pronoun is ya (3rd person masculine sg.).
min is “to me” and does not mark gender.

So a man or a woman would both say:

Aikin jiya ya yi min wahala sosai.

Could I express the same idea using a different verb, like with wahalar da?

Yes, there is a more explicitly “verbal” alternative using wahalar da (to trouble / to cause difficulty to):

Aikin jiya ya wahalar da ni sosai.

This literally means: “Yesterday’s work troubled me a lot / caused me a lot of hardship.”

Differences in feel:

ya yi min wahala sosai
- Very common, everyday, idiomatic
- Slightly less formal, very natural in speech
ya wahalar da ni sosai
- Feels a bit more formal or explicit
- Puts more focus on the act of troubling

Both are correct, but ya yi min wahala sosai is probably what you’ll hear most often in normal conversation.