Breakdown of Ni ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
Questions & Answers about Ni ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
Yes, both relate to “I,” but they are different kinds of pronouns:
- ni = independent / emphatic pronoun (“me / I (as for me)”)
- ina = subject pronoun fused with the progressive marker (“I am …‑ing / I (presently) …”)
So Ni ina so in koya wa yara Hausa is roughly:
- Ni – as for me / me personally
- ina so – I want / I like
You can usually drop ni and just say:
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa. – I want to teach the children Hausa.
Using ni puts extra focus on the subject, e.g. in contrast:
- Ni ina so in koya wa yara Hausa, amma kai ba ka so.
I want to teach the children Hausa, but you don’t.
Yes. The most neutral, typical sentence is:
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
That alone already means “I want to teach the children Hausa.”
Use ni mainly when:
- you are contrasting with someone else (ni… kai… su…)
- you want to be a bit more emphatic (“I, personally, …”)
- you are answering a “who?” question:
– Wa zai koya wa yara Hausa? – Who will teach the children Hausa?
– Ni ina so in koya wa yara Hausa. – I want to teach the children Hausa.
so is the verb “to like / to want / to love.”
The ina part is the progressive/present subject form of “I”:
- ina so = I am liking / I (at present) want / I like
Functionally, ina so usually corresponds to “I want” or “I like” in English.
Compare:
- Na so – I liked / I wanted (completed action, past)
- Zan so – I will like / I will want (future)
- Ina so – I (now) want / I like
In this sentence, ina so is best read as “I want” (right now / in general).
The little word in (sometimes written ’in) is a subjunctive/complementizer. It introduces a clause with another verb, and it usually agrees with 1st person singular (“that I should…”).
- ina so – I want
- in koya – that I (should) teach / in order for me to teach
Together:
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
= I want (that I should) teach Hausa to the children.
= I want to teach the children Hausa.
Without in, ina so koya… is not grammatical in this function.
Whenever so is followed directly by another finite verb, you normally need in (or another appropriate subjunctive marker).
koya can mean both “to learn” and “to teach”, depending on the structure:
learn – when it just takes a direct object (what is learned):
- Ina son in koya Hausa. – I want to learn Hausa.
(no wa- person phrase)
- Ina son in koya Hausa. – I want to learn Hausa.
teach – when it has a recipient/beneficiary introduced by wa:
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
Literally: I want to teach to the children Hausa.
→ I want to teach the children Hausa.
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
So, in your sentence, koya wa yara Hausa clearly means “teach Hausa to the children.”
wa is a preposition that usually means “to / for” and marks the indirect object (the recipient or beneficiary).
- koya wa yara Hausa
= teach *to the children Hausa
= *teach the children Hausa
You need wa because the children are not what is being taught (that’s Hausa), they are who is being taught to.
More examples of wa:
- Na ba wa yara ƙwallo. – I gave a ball to the children.
- Za mu taimaka wa malamai. – We will help the teachers.
Over time, with pronouns, wa can fuse (e.g. masa, musu), but with a full noun like yara, it stays separate.
Yes, yara means “children.”
Details:
- singular: yaro – child / boy (often male, but can be generic “child”)
- plural: yara – children
Some dialects also use yara for “kids” of both genders; context usually makes it clear.
To say “the children,” you typically attach the definite marker ‑n/‑r:
- yaran – the children
- Ina so in koya wa yaran Hausa. – I want to teach the children Hausa.
In your original sentence, with just yara, it’s more like “(some) children / children in general.”
Yes, this is normal for Hausa when you have a verb with two objects (recipient + thing):
General pattern:
- Subject – Verb – wa + Indirect Object – Direct Object
In your sentence:
- Ni – I (emphatic subject)
- ina so – want
- in koya – that I should teach
- wa yara – to children (indirect object)
- Hausa – Hausa (direct object; the thing being taught)
So the order “… wa yara Hausa” is the standard way to say “to the children Hausa” → “the children Hausa.”
Hausa is basically S–V–O, but when there are two “objects,” the recipient (with wa) comes before the thing.
You can, but it changes the nuance slightly.
Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa.
- so + in + verb
- Means: I want to teach the children Hausa (a specific wish/intention).
Ina son koya wa yara Hausa.
- son here is a verbal noun (“liking / love of”) from so.
- Literally: I am in the state of love/liking of teaching Hausa to children.
- Feels more like “I like teaching Hausa to children” as an activity in general, more habitual.
So:
- To talk about a particular desire/intention right now, prefer:
Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa. - To talk about your general fondness for that activity, you can use:
Ina son koya wa yara Hausa.
Both are grammatical; they just emphasize different shades of meaning.
It can be either, depending on context:
“I want” when followed by a clause with another verb:
- Ina so in koya wa yara Hausa. – I want to teach the children Hausa.
- Ina so in tafi. – I want to go.
“I like / I love” when followed by a noun:
- Ina son Hausa. – I like Hausa / I love Hausa.
- Ina son yara. – I like children.
So in your sentence, because ina so is followed by in + koya (another verb), the natural translation is “I want.”
In many modern writing conventions (especially those influenced by English and formal standards), Hausa as a language or an ethnic group name is capitalized, just like in English.
However:
- In a lot of everyday or older texts, capitalization may be inconsistent.
- Grammatically, capitalization doesn’t change the structure or meaning here.
For learning purposes and for formal writing, it’s good practice to capitalize “Hausa.”