Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ya kamata kowane dalibi ya zo darasi da wuri. - Every student should come to the lesson early.

ya kamata ≈ should / ought to, is supposed to
It usually expresses moral, social, or practical obligation, but not the absolute necessity of must.
It can be translated as:
- Every student should come to class early.
- Every student is supposed to come to class early.

So it’s generally weaker than “must”, closer to “should / ought to”, though in some contexts it can be taken quite seriously (like a strong recommendation or expectation).

Why is ya used twice: in ya kamata and then again in ya zo?

The two ya’s are doing different jobs in two linked clauses:

ya kamata
- ya = 3rd person masculine singular subject marker: he / it
- kamata = “fittingness / appropriateness” (a verbal noun-type word)
- Together: “it is fitting / it should be” (literally: he/it suits).
kowane dalibi ya zo
- kowane dalibi = every student
- ya = 3rd person masculine singular subject marker again, now referring to kowane dalibi
- zo = come (perfective/subjunctive form)
- ya zo here is “(he) should come / comes”.

In Hausa, when you have something like ya kamata … ya zo, the subject marker is repeated in each clause.
So:

Ya kamata kowane dalibi ya zo…
≈ It is fitting that every student should come…

Each ya belongs to its own clause. This repetition is normal and required in Hausa grammar.

What is the literal breakdown of the whole sentence?

Word by word:

Ya – 3rd person masculine singular subject marker: he / it
kamata – “fittingness, suitability” → together ya kamata = should / it is appropriate
kowane – every / each
dalibi – student
ya – again, 3rd person masculine singular subject marker, now for kowane dalibi
zo – come (perfective form, used here in a “should come” sense)
darasi – lesson, class (teaching session)
da – with, often used to form adverbial expressions
wuri – place, point in time; early (in this expression)

Literal-ish gloss:

Ya kamata – It is fitting / it should be
kowane dalibi – every student
ya zo – that he come
darasi – (to) class
da wuri – with earliness / early

So a close literal translation is:
“It is fitting that every student come to class early.”

Why is kowane dalibi singular in Hausa if we mean “every student”, which feels plural in English?

In Hausa:

kowane = each / every
It normally takes a singular noun:
- kowane dalibi – each/every student
- kowane gari – each/every town

Even though English often thinks of “every student” as conceptually plural, grammatically it is also singular (we say every student is, not every student are). Hausa matches that:

kowane dalibi = singular, so the verb also uses singular agreement: ya zo (he comes).

If you wanted to talk about students in a clearly plural way, you’d use something like:

duk dalibai – all (the) students
dalibai duk – the students all

But kowane dalibi is each/every (individual) student, and therefore singular in form.

Why is the verb ya zo (perfective) used after ya kamata? Is this a past tense?

Ya zo on its own normally means “he came” (3rd person masculine singular perfective).
However, after certain expressions like ya kamata, this perfective form is used to express something like a subjunctive / required action, rather than literal past.

So:

ya zo after ya kamata = (he) should come or (he) is supposed to come

This is a common pattern in Hausa:

Ya kamata mu tafi. – We should go.
Ya dace a yi haka. – It is proper that this be done.

So here, ya zo is not past; it’s the form used in a dependent clause to express what should happen.

What does darasi mean exactly? Is it “class”, “lesson”, or “course”?

Darasi is usually:

a single lesson or class session
- e.g. one period on the timetable, or one teaching session.

Depending on context, English translations would be:

lesson (what the teacher teaches)
class (the meeting of students and teacher at a given time)

So in this sentence:

ya zo darasi = come to class / come to the lesson

For “classroom” (the room itself), you’d typically see aji.
For a whole course of study, you might hear kwas (from “course”) or other expressions, not darasi by itself.

What does da wuri literally mean, and how is it used?

Da wuri is a set phrase meaning “early”.

Literally:

da = with
wuri = place; point; time; early (in this expression)

So the literal idea is something like “with promptness/earliness”, but idiomatically you just learn:

da wuri = early

Examples:

Ka tashi da wuri. – Wake up early.
Mun isa da wuri. – We arrived early.

So:

ya zo darasi da wuri = he should come to class early.

Can I change the word order, for example: Kowane dalibi ya kamata ya zo darasi da wuri? Is that correct?

Yes, that word order is also correct and natural:

Kowane dalibi ya kamata ya zo darasi da wuri.

Both are acceptable:

Ya kamata kowane dalibi ya zo darasi da wuri.
Kowane dalibi ya kamata ya zo darasi da wuri.

The difference is mostly focus/emphasis:

(1) starts with ya kamata, emphasizing the general obligation or appropriateness.
(2) starts with kowane dalibi, emphasizing who has the obligation (each student).

In everyday speech, both patterns appear; choice often depends on what the speaker wants to highlight first.

Is there a difference between ya kamata and ya dace in similar sentences?

Both can translate as “should / it is appropriate”, but there is a nuance:

ya kamata – very common; often about what someone is expected/supposed to do, norms, obligations, duties.
- Ya kamata kowane dalibi ya zo… – Every student should / is supposed to come…
ya dace – also “is proper / is fitting / is suitable”, sometimes a bit more formal or about rightness/appropriateness, not always obligation.
- Ya dace a girmama malamai. – It is appropriate/right to respect teachers.

In many everyday cases, you could swap them with only subtle changes in tone, but ya kamata is usually the more straightforward “should / ought to” for personal obligations like this sentence.

How would I make a negative version, like “Students should not come to class early”?

To negate ya kamata, you wrap the whole clause with ba … ba:

Ba ya kamata kowane dalibi ya zo darasi da wuri ba.
= It is not appropriate that every student should come to class early.
(i.e. Students should not come to class early.)

Structure:

Ba ya kamata … ba – it is not fitting / should not

So the pattern is:

Ba ya kamata + [subject] + [verb] … ba.

For example:

Ba ya kamata yara su yi haka ba. – Children should not do that.
Ba ya kamata mu makara ba. – We should not be late. (literally “be late”)

Why is the subject marker ya masculine when kowane dalibi could mean male or female students?

Hausa grammatical gender is not always the same as real-world gender.

Dalibi (student, male) / daliba (student, female)
kowane dalibi uses dalibi, which is grammatically masculine.

When speaking generally about “every student” without focusing on gender, speakers often default to the masculine form and therefore use the masculine subject marker:

kowane dalibi ya zo – literally “every (male) student, he should come”, but used generically.

If you specifically meant female students, you’d say:

kowane daliba ta zo darasi da wuri. – Every (female) student should come to class early.
- Here you see ta (3rd person feminine singular) instead of ya.

So the ya reflects the grammatical gender of the noun being used, and in generic statements the masculine form is commonly used to refer to students in general.