Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara, muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana. - Usually when I visit them, we sit in the garden and talk.

muna – we (1st person plural subject, progressive/imperfective aspect)
zaune – sitting / seated (a stative form from the verb zauna “sit, stay, live”)
a – in / at (locative preposition)
lambu – garden / yard
mu – we (1st person plural pronoun, subjunctive/short form here)
yi – do
magana – speech, talk

So muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana = literally we are seated in (a) garden, we do talk → we sit in the garden and talk.

Putting it all together:

Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara, muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana.
Usually, when I visit them, we sit in the garden and talk.

What exactly does Yawanci mean, and where can it go in the sentence?

Yawanci literally relates to the majority (of the time), so it means:

usually, generally, for the most part, most of the time.

In this sentence it is at the beginning:

Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara, … – Usually, when I visit them, …

You can also place it later, often after the subject, for example:

Idan na yi musu ziyara yawanci muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana.
When I visit them, we usually sit in the garden and talk.

Both orders are natural. Sentence‑initial Yawanci feels like a general comment about your habits; later yawanci feels like you are specifying how that particular situation usually turns out.

Does idan here mean if or when? How is it different from lokacin da or in?

idan is very common and can mean either:

if (conditional), or
when/whenever (time, especially in habitual contexts).

In this sentence, combined with Yawanci, it clearly has a whenever / when(ever) meaning:

Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara…
Usually, when I visit them…

Comparisons:

idan – if / when, very general, used a lot in everyday speech.
lokacin da – literally the time that / when. Often a bit more explicit/formal:
- Yawanci lokacin da na yi musu ziyara, muna zaune…
in – a shorter form, especially colloquial, often interchangeable with idan in speech:
- Yawanci in na yi musu ziyara, …

Here, idan is best understood as when(ever) I visit them rather than a real if.

In na yi musu ziyara, what is na doing—does it mean I, or is it a tense marker?

na is both the subject I and a marker of perfective aspect in this position. Hausa marks person and aspect together in these short forms:

na yi – I did / I have done
ka yi – you (sg.) did
ya yi – he did
ta yi – she did
muka yi – we did (relative/focused) etc.

So na here is:

1st person singular subject, and
indicates perfective aspect (a completed event: did, have done).

However, in habitual sentences with idan, this perfective often corresponds to English present simple:

Idan na yi musu ziyara…
literally: If/when I do a visit to them (whenever that happens)…
natural English: When I visit them…

Why is it na yi musu ziyara and not something like na musu ziyara without yi?

Hausa often uses a light verb yi (do) together with a noun to express an action:

yi ziyara – make a visit, pay a visit
yi magana – speak / talk
yi karatu – study / read
yi aure – get married

So na yi musu ziyara is literally I did to-them visit → I visited them.

You can say na musu ziyara, and speakers do say that; it often sounds a bit more compact and still means I visited them. But yi ziyara is extremely common and fully standard. Think of it as the usual idiom: to pay someone a visit.

What exactly is musu, and how is it different from su?

su by itself is:

3rd person plural pronoun: they / them.

When combined with an indirect object marker, it becomes musu, which means to them or for them.

na ga su – I saw them (direct object)
na yi musu ziyara – I paid them a visit (to them / for them)
na ba su littafi – I gave them a book (here su appears after the verb ba “give” as a direct/indirect object, depending on analysis)

So:

su – they / them
musu – to them / for them (dative / indirect object form).

In this sentence, musu tells us who receives the visit: I make a visit to them.

What does muna zaune literally mean, and how is it different from muna zama?

muna – we (1pl) + imperfective/progressive aspect
zaune – sitting / seated (a stative/adverbial form from zauna)

muna zaune literally: we are seated / we are in a sitting state.

Nuances:

muna zaune – focuses on the state/position of sitting:
- we are sitting (there); we sit and remain seated (there).
muna zama – uses the verb zama/zauna in an ongoing sense and can mean:
- we are staying / living / residing (e.g., in a town), or
- we keep sitting / we are in the process of sitting down, depending on context.

In the sentence, muna zaune a lambu is best seen as:

we sit / are seated in the garden (a typical arrangement or habit when you visit them).

Why is the preposition a used in a lambu, and could you also say cikin lambu?

a is a very general locative preposition meaning in, at, on depending on the noun and context:

a lambu – in the garden / at the garden
a gida – at home / in the house
a kasuwa – in the market

You can also say:

cikin lambu or a cikin lambu – inside the garden.

Differences:

a lambu – neutral location: in/at the garden, not strongly emphasizing being inside the enclosed space.
cikin lambu / a cikin lambu – emphasizes inside the garden, within its bounds.

In everyday speech, a lambu is completely natural here and usually translated as in the garden.

Why do we get mu yi magana instead of muna magana at the end?

mu yi magana uses a subjunctive/cohortative-type form:

mu – we (short form used before the base verb)
yi – do
magana – talk / speech

So mu yi magana is like saying:

we should talk, we (then) talk, for us to talk.

In Hausa, after one action, a following action in sequence is very often expressed with this subject + base verb pattern rather than repeating muna or muke:

Mun zauna mu yi magana. – We sat and talked.
Za mu tafi mu sayi abinci. – We will go (and) buy food.

In your sentence:

muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana
is essentially: we are seated in the garden (and) we talk / so that we talk.

You could also say:

muna zaune a lambu muna magana.

That would sound more like two simultaneous ongoing actions: we are sitting in the garden and (at the same time) talking.

The version with mu yi magana has a slight sense of purpose/sequence: we sit there so we can talk / we sit and (then) talk, which fits very well with the idea of visiting someone to chat.

Is mu yi magana here like saying let’s talk?

Grammatically, mu yi magana is the same form you would use for a cohortative:

Mu yi magana. – Let’s talk.

In this sentence, though, it is not a direct suggestion; it functions inside a narrative description of what usually happens:

…muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana.
…we sit in the garden and talk.

So:

Same form as “let’s talk”,
But function here is more “we (then) talk” as part of a routine sequence.

Could the sentence be Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara, muna zaune a lambu muna magana? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can say that, and it is grammatical:

Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara, muna zaune a lambu muna magana.

Meaning: Usually, when I visit them, we are sitting in the garden talking.

Nuance difference:

muna zaune … mu yi magana –
suggests: we sit in the garden (so that / and then) we talk. A bit more like sequence or purpose.
muna zaune … muna magana –
presents both as ongoing activities at the same time: we are sitting and talking (there).

In everyday conversation, both versions might be translated the same in English, but the original with mu yi magana leans slightly more toward we sit there to talk / we sit and then talk.

Why is there no explicit word for and before mu yi magana?

Hausa often shows coordination simply by:

Juxtaposing clauses, and
Repeating the subject (or using a subject short form like mu).

So:

muna zaune a lambu mu yi magana
literally: we-are-sitting in garden we-do talk.

The second mu + verb acts very much like and we talk in English, even without a separate word for and.

You could add an explicit linker:

muna zaune a lambu, mu kuma yi magana. – we sit in the garden, and we also talk.
muna zaune a lambu sannan mu yi magana. – we sit in the garden and then we talk.

But it is not required. The bare mu yi magana immediately after the first clause is normal coordination in Hausa.

Why is na yi perfective if we are talking about a usual, repeated event?

In Hausa, perfective forms like na yi are not only for single, completed events. In certain frames, especially with idan (if/when) and adverbs like Yawanci (usually), they can express general, habitual actions:

Idan na tashi, sai na sha shayi.
When(ever) I get up, I drink tea.
Yawanci idan na yi aiki da dare, ina gajiya.
Usually, when I work at night, I get tired.

So in:

Yawanci idan na yi musu ziyara…

the combination Yawanci + idan + perfective gives the sense of:

Whenever I (happen to) visit them (as a complete event), usually what follows is…

English chooses present simple (when I visit them), but Hausa is comfortable using a perfective form in this conditional/habitual frame.