Learn Hardcore Hausa: A darasi na yau, malami ya ce sauraro yana da muhimmanci kamar karatu. - In today’s lesson, the teacher said listening is as important as reading.

A darasi na yau literally means “in the lesson of today”, i.e. “in today’s lesson”.
Hausa likes to put this kind of time/place phrase first in the sentence, so starting with A darasi na yau is very natural:
- A darasi na yau, malami ya ce …
- “In today’s lesson, the teacher said …”

You could also say Yau a darasi, malami ya ce … (“Today in class, the teacher said …”), but A darasi na yau… is perfectly normal and idiomatic.

How does darasi na yau mean “today’s lesson”? Why na?

darasi na yau is a genitive (possessive / “of”) construction:

darasi – lesson
na – “of” (linker for masculine singular nouns)
yau – today

So darasi na yau literally = “lesson of today” → “today’s lesson.”

You may also hear darasin yau (with -n stuck onto darasi instead of a separate na).
Both darasi na yau and darasin yau are used; they mean the same thing in everyday speech.

Why is there no word for “the” in front of darasi or malami?

Hausa does not have a separate word for “the” or “a/an.”

Definiteness is shown by context, not by an article word:

A darasi na yau → depending on context, this is understood as “in today’s lesson” (not “in a random today’s lesson”).
malami ya ce… → context tells us this is “the teacher said…” (the teacher of the class) rather than “a teacher said…”.

So Hausa simply says:

malami ya ce…
and English adds “the”:
the teacher said…

In malami ya ce, why do we have both malami and ya? Isn’t that like saying “the teacher he said”?

Yes, if you translated word‑for‑word it would be like “the teacher he said,” but in Hausa this is completely normal and required.

malami – teacher
ya – “he” (3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun)
ce – said

In Hausa, a finite verb must have a subject pronoun even when the subject noun is already mentioned. The noun and the pronoun agree:

Malami ya ce… – “The teacher said…”
Dalibai sun ce… – “The students said…” (sun = “they”)

So you should think of malami ya ce as a single unit that means “the teacher said”; the ya is just how Hausa grammar works.

What exactly does ce in ya ce mean? Is it the same ce I see after nouns as a copula?

Here, ce is a verb meaning “said.”

So:

ya ce = “he said”

There is another ce which is a copula (a kind of “to be”), used mainly with feminine nouns or certain focus structures, e.g.:

Littafi ne. – It is a book.
Mota ce. – It is a car.

In malami ya ce sauraro…, the ce is the verb “to say”, not the copular ce. The meaning and position in the sentence make it clear which one it is.

What does sauraro mean exactly, and how is it different from just “hearing”?

sauraro is the verbal noun of the verb saurara = “to listen”.

saurara – to listen (pay attention with your ears)
sauraro – listening (the act/skill of listening)

It implies active, attentive listening, not just sound hitting your ears.

For simple “to hear” in Hausa, you usually see:

ji – to hear / feel / sense

So:

sauraro ≈ “listening” (actively paying attention)
ji ≈ “hearing” (perceiving sounds)

In the sentence, sauraro is used to talk about listening as a skill/ability:
“listening is as important as reading/studying.”

Why is it sauraro yana da muhimmanci, literally “listening, it is having importance”? How does this mean “listening is important”?

The construction X yana da Y (or X na da Y) is very common in Hausa and often translates as “X has Y” or, more idiomatically, “X is Y / X is characterized by Y.”

sauraro – listening
yana – “he/it is (in the state of) …” (3rd person masculine singular)
da – with/has
muhimmanci – importance

So sauraro yana da muhimmanci is literally:

“listening, it is with importance / it has importance”

And that is the natural Hausa way to say:

“Listening is important.”

This pattern is also used with many other adjectives-nouns:

Lafiya tana da muhimmanci. – Health is important.
Ilmi yana da amfani. – Knowledge is useful / has usefulness.

Could I say sauraro na da muhimmanci instead of sauraro yana da muhimmanci?

Yes, sauraro na da muhimmanci is also grammatical and understood.

Differences (very small in many contexts):

na da is a shorter form (“has / is with”).
yana da includes yana, which can give a slightly more continuous or stative feel, but in a general statement like this, both are fine.

In everyday speech, you’ll hear both:

sauraro na da muhimmanci
sauraro yana da muhimmanci

They both mean basically “listening is important.”

What is the difference between muhimmanci and muhimmi?

They are related but not identical:

muhimmi – adjective: important
- e.g. darasi mai muhimmanci / darasi mai muhimmanci (depending on dialect/writing) – an important lesson
muhimmanci – noun: importance
- e.g. muhimmancin sauraro – the importance of listening

In sauraro yana da muhimmanci:

muhimmanci is a noun (“importance”).
The phrase literally is: “listening has importance.”

Another valid way to say “listening is important” is:

Sauraro muhimmi ne. – Listening is important.

Here muhimmi is an adjective, and ne is a copula (“is”) with a masculine noun.

What does kamar do in this sentence?

kamar means “like / as / as … as”.

In this sentence:

kamar karatu – “like reading/studying”, or more idiomatically, “as … as reading/studying.”

So:
sauraro yana da muhimmanci kamar karatu =

“listening is important like reading/studying,”
i.e. “listening is as important as reading/studying.”

You’ll see kamar used for similes and comparisons:

Yaro kamar uba. – The boy is like (his) father.
Yana aiki kamar doki. – He works like a horse.

Does karatu mean just “reading”, or could it also mean “studying / education”?

karatu is quite broad. It can mean:

Reading (the physical act of reading text)
Studying / learning
Formal education / schooling / studies

Context decides. In this sentence, because it’s about school and a teacher, karatu naturally includes studying/education, not just pronouncing words from a page.

So translating as “reading” or “studying” or “schoolwork” can all be justifiable, depending on what you want to emphasize:

“listening is as important as reading”
or “listening is as important as studying”

Why is it yana (masculine “he/it is”) for sauraro, which is not a person?

In Hausa, nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), and sauraro is masculine.

The pronoun and tense marker must agree with the noun’s gender and number:

sauraro yana da muhimmanci – listening (masc. sg.) is important
- yana = “he/it is (masc. sg.)”

Compare:

hanya tana da muhimmanci. – the road is important / useful
- hanya (road) is feminine, so tana is used.

Even for non‑human things, Hausa still uses grammatical gender, so you get ya / shi / yana (masc.) or ta / ita / tana (fem.) depending on the noun.

Could I change the word order to Malami ya ce a darasi na yau, sauraro yana da muhimmanci kamar karatu?

Yes, that is also grammatical and meaningful:

Malami ya ce, a darasi na yau, sauraro yana da muhimmanci kamar karatu.

However, the original:

A darasi na yau, malami ya ce sauraro…

puts the time setting in front as a topic:
“As for today’s lesson, the teacher said…”

Both orders are acceptable. Hausa is quite flexible about putting time/place phrases either:

at the beginning (very common), or
after the subject and verb.

Is there normally a cewa (“that”) after ya ce? Why is it missing here?

Hausa often uses cewa as a complementizer meaning “that”:

Malami ya ce cewa sauraro yana da muhimmanci. – The teacher said that listening is important.

However, cewa is very often dropped in natural speech and writing, especially before a full quoted clause like in your sentence.

So:

Malami ya ce sauraro yana da muhimmanci kamar karatu.

is perfectly normal; it’s like English sometimes dropping “that”:

“The teacher said (that) listening is as important as reading.”

Why isn’t there a word like “is” directly between sauraro and yana?

In Hausa, the tense/aspect marker itself plays the role that English “is/was/will be” plays.

Here, yana is doing the job of “is”:

sauraro yana da muhimmanci
- literally: “listening it‑is with importance”
- functionally: “listening is important”

So you don’t add an extra verb for “to be”; yana already encodes “is (in this state).”

Similarly:

Lafiya tana da kyau. – Health is good.
Rana ta yi zafi. – The day is hot (lit. “the sun did heat”).

Hausa just handles “be” differently from English, packing it into these subject markers and aspect forms.