Malami ya rubuta sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu a kan allo.

Ya is a subject pronoun that also carries tense/aspect information.

• It is 3rd person singular masculine, perfective.
• It refers back to malami (teacher), which is grammatically masculine.

In Hausa, a finite verb normally needs this kind of pronoun in front of it, even if the subject noun is already stated. So:

• Malami ya rubuta… = literally “Teacher he-wrote…”, but in normal English: “The teacher wrote…”.

If the teacher were female, you would say:

• Malama ta rubuta sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu a kan allo.
  
  • ta = 3rd person singular feminine perfective, agreeing with malama.

Ya rubuta is in the perfective aspect.

• It presents the action as completed.
• Hausa perfective does not strictly distinguish between English simple past and present perfect.

So ya rubuta can be translated as:

• “he wrote”
• or “he has written”

The right English choice depends on context, not on a tense difference in Hausa.

Compare with other common forms:

• yana rubuta – he is writing (progressive)
• yakan rubuta – he usually writes / he tends to write (habitual)
• zai rubuta – he will write (future)

This is about gender agreement and a linking ending.

1. Hausa has grammatical gender:
   • masculine vs feminine nouns.
2. Kalma (word) is feminine.
3. The basic adjective for “new” is:
   • sabo (masculine)
   • sabuwa (feminine)

When this adjective comes before a noun, it usually takes a little linking consonant:

• masculine: sabo + -n → sabon (e.g. sabon littafi – a new book)
• feminine: sabuwa + -r → sabuwar (e.g. sabuwar kalma – a new word)

So here we must say:

• sabuwar kalma (new word, feminine)

Sabuwa by itself is the plain feminine form, but before a noun you normally use the linked form sabuwar.

The default pattern in Hausa is indeed: noun + adjective:

• gida babba – a big house
• mutum fari – a light‑skinned / fair person

However, several common adjectives (including new, big, small, long/tall, etc.) very often appear before the noun and take that linker:

• sabuwar kalma – a new word
• sabon littafi – a new book
• babban gida – a big house
• ƙaramin yaro – a small boy

You can also use kalma sabuwa in some contexts, but that tends to feel more like a statement “the word is new”, especially if you add the copula:

• Kalma sabuwa ce. – The word is new.

In sabuwar kalma, the adjective and noun form one tight noun phrase “a new word”, which is what we want here.

Hausa does not have articles like a or the. A bare noun can be understood as either definite or indefinite, depending on context.

• malami could mean:
  • a teacher (introducing someone new), or
  • the teacher (someone already known in the situation).

Similarly:

• sabuwar kalma – a/the new word
• jimla biyu – two sentences / the two sentences

To make definiteness very explicit, Hausa uses other tools, e.g.:

• wancan malami – that teacher
• malamin nan – this (particular) teacher
• malamina – my teacher

In a typical classroom context, English will naturally translate your sentence as:

• “The teacher wrote a new word and two sentences on the board.”

Da is very flexible in Hausa. Common meanings include:

• and
• with
• using / by means of
• sometimes when / as in certain constructions

In your sentence:

• sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu = a new word and two sentences

So here da is simply linking two objects of the verb, just like and.

In other contexts it can mean with/using, for example:

• Ya rubuta wasiƙa da alkalami. – He wrote a letter with a pen.

But in your sentence the natural reading is clearly “and”.

The normal order in Hausa is:

noun + numeral

Examples:

• mutane biyu – two people
• littafi uku – three books
• awanni huɗu – four hours

So jimla biyu follows this same pattern:

• jimla biyu – two sentences (literally “sentence two”)

Putting the number before the noun (biyu jimla) would be wrong in standard Hausa.

When Hausa uses cardinal numbers, it very often keeps the noun in the singular:

• mota biyu – two cars
• littafi uku – three books
• rana huɗu – four days

There are plural forms for many nouns (and a plural of jimla exists), but:

• Using the singular noun after a small number like biyu is extremely common and perfectly natural: jimla biyu – two sentences.

Some speakers, especially in more formal or careful language, may choose a plural with the number for some nouns. For everyday purposes, you can safely copy the pattern you see here:

• [singular noun] + [number] → jimla biyu – two sentences

Breakdown:

• a – a basic locative preposition: at, in, on
• kan – literally “head, top, surface”
• allo – a writing board / slate / blackboard / whiteboard

So a kan allo is literally:

• “at the top/surface of the board” → on the board

Variations:

1. a kan allo

   • Very clear “on (the surface of) the board”, good for physical location.

2. akan allo

   • In speech and writing, a kan often merges to akan.
   • For physical “on”, a kan allo and akan allo are both heard; many speakers treat them as equivalent in this context.

3. kan allo

   • Sometimes kan is used directly as a preposition without a:
     
     • Ya sa littafi kan tebur. – He put the book on the table.
   • So kan allo can also mean “on the board”.

In your sentence, a kan allo very straightforwardly means “on the board”.

The basic word order here is:

Malami (subject) ya rubuta (verb) sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu (object) a kan allo (locative phrase)

You can move a kan allo for emphasis or stylistic reasons:

1. Fronted for emphasis on the location:

   • A kan allo malami ya rubuta sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu.
     → “On the board, the teacher wrote a new word and two sentences.”

   Often native speakers would add a focus marker:

   • A kan allo ne malami ya rubuta sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu.
     → “It is on the board that the teacher wrote …”

2. After the verb but before the object:

   • Malami ya rubuta a kan allo sabuwar kalma da jimla biyu.

   This is possible, though many speakers find the original order more neutral and smooth.

In all cases, the basic meaning stays the same. Changing the position mainly affects which part of the sentence is highlighted or emphasized, not what happened.