Learn Hardcore Hausa: Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida. - Food at the market is very expensive, so I want to cook food at home.

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.

Food at the market is very expensive, so I want to cook food at home.

Breakdown of Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.

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Questions & Answers about Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.

What does “Abinci a kasuwa” mean structurally? Is it “market food” or “food in the market”?

Abinci a kasuwa is literally “food at/in the market” (location).

abinci = food
a = at / in / on (general preposition for location)
kasuwa = market

So this phrase describes where the food is, not what kind of food it is.

If you wanted “market food / food sold at the market” as a type, you’d more likely say:

abincin kasuwa – literally “the food of the market”, i.e. market food / street food

What does “yana da tsada sosai” literally mean, and how does it end up meaning “is very expensive”?

Literally, “yana da tsada sosai” breaks down like this:

yana = he/it is (in progressive/stative form: “is having / has”)
da = with / having
tsada = expensiveness, high price
sosai = very, really, extremely

So the literal sense is: “it has a lot of expensiveness” → “it is expensive”.

In Hausa, the pattern “X yana da Y” is very common for describing possessed qualities:

Yaro yana da kuɗi. – The boy has money.
Motar nan tana da tsada. – That car is expensive (lit. has expensiveness).
Gidan yana da girma. – The house is big (lit. has bigness).

So “abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai” = “Food at the market is very expensive.”

What exactly does “sosai” add? Could I leave it out, or put it somewhere else?

sosai means “very / really / a lot” and intensifies the adjective or idea before it.

yana da tsada – it is expensive
yana da tsada sosai – it is very expensive / really expensive

You can:

Leave it out:
- Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada. – Food at the market is expensive.
Replace it with other intensifiers, e.g. ƙwarai, matuka:
- yana da tsada ƙwarai – very expensive indeed
- yana da tsada matuka – extremely expensive

Position: it normally comes after the word or phrase it intensifies:

tsada sosai – very expensive
ina jin yunwa sosai – I am very hungry

So “tsada sosai” is the natural place for it here.

What does “don haka” mean, and how is it used compared to “saboda”?

don haka means “so / therefore / for that reason”.

Breakdown:

don (short for domin) = for / because of
haka = thus, like this, that way

So literally: “for that (reason)”.

Usage in the sentence:

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.
“Food at the market is very expensive, so I want to cook food at home.”

Comparison:

don haka / saboda haka – “so / therefore / that’s why”
- Abinci ya yi tsada, don haka ba zan siya ba.
  Food has become expensive, so I won’t buy (it).
saboda (by itself) – “because (of)”
- Ba zan siya abinci a kasuwa ba saboda tsada.
  I won’t buy food at the market because of the price.
- Ba zan tafi kasuwa ba saboda abinci yana da tsada.
  I won’t go to the market because food is expensive.

In your sentence, “don haka” neatly links the reason (expensive food) with the result (cooking at home).

Why is “ni” used in “don haka ni ina so in dafa…”? Could I just say “don haka ina so in dafa…”?

Yes, you can say it without ni:

don haka ina so in dafa abinci a gida.

Adding ni makes the “I” more emphatic or contrastive:

don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.
“…so I want to cook food at home (as for me / unlike others / specifically me).”

Think of ni here as something like “I myself” or stressed “I”.
It is common in Hausa to add the independent pronoun (ni, kai, shi, ita, mu, ku, su) for emphasis, even though the verb form ina already shows the subject.

What does “ina so” mean exactly? Is it “I like” or “I want”?

ina so can mean both “I like” and “I want”, depending on context.

“I like (something)” – general preference
- Ina son shayi. – I like tea.
- Ya na son wasa. – He likes playing.
“I want (to do something / to have something)” – desire
- Ina so in sha shayi. – I want to drink tea.
- Ina so in tafi gida. – I want to go home.

In your sentence:

ina so in dafa abinci a gida = “I want to cook food at home” (a wish/intention, not just a general preference).

What is the role of “in” in “ina so in dafa abinci”?

The “in” here is a subjunctive subject marker meaning roughly “that I (should)”.

Pattern:

ina so in dafa abinci
= “I want to cook food”
(literally: “I want that I cook food”)

The subjunctive markers are:

in – that I
ka / ki – that you (m/f)
ya – that he
ta – that she
mu – that we
ku – that you (pl)
su – that they

Examples:

Ina so in tafi. – I want to go.
Kana so ka tafi. – You (m) want to go.
Suna so su tafi. – They want to go.

So “ina so in dafa” is the normal way to say “I want to cook” when followed by a verb.

Could I say “ina son dafa abinci a gida” instead of “ina so in dafa abinci a gida”? Is there a difference?

You can say both, but there is a subtle difference in feel.

ina so in dafa abinci a gida
- Literally: I want that I cook food at home.
- Feels more like a specific intention / plan (“I want to cook (this time)”).
ina son dafa abinci a gida
- Here son is so + -n, a genitive form working like a noun: “liking / wanting of”.
- Literally: “I have a liking/wanting of cooking food at home.”
- Often feels a bit more general or habitual, like “I like cooking food at home” or “I (usually) want to cook at home.”

In everyday speech, people may use them quite flexibly, but a useful rule of thumb:

“ina so in + VERB” – more about a particular action you want to do now / in this situation.
“ina son + VERB-ing (verbal noun)” – more about a general liking or preference.

For your sentence about expensive market food leading to a decision,
“ina so in dafa abinci a gida” nicely expresses a specific decision.

Why is “abinci” repeated at the end? Could we say “…ina so in dafa shi a gida” instead?

Yes, you can replace the second abinci with shi:

… don haka ni ina so in dafa shi a gida.
“…so I want to cook it at home.”

Both are correct:

dafa abinci – cook food (generic)
dafa shi – cook it (referring to some food already mentioned)

In the original sentence, repeating abinci keeps it clear and generic:
“I want to cook food at home” (not necessarily that exact food from the market, more a general statement).

Using shi ties it more directly to some specific food already in the discourse.

What does “a” mean in “a kasuwa” and “a gida”? Are there alternatives?

a is a general preposition meaning “in / at / on”, especially for locations.

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

You’ll see a few related patterns:

a kasuwa / a gida – neutral “at/in”
cikin kasuwa / cikin gida – “inside the market/house” (emphasizing inside)
a cikin kasuwa – also possible: “in(side) the market”

In your sentence:

Abinci a kasuwa – Food at the market
dafa abinci a gida – cook food at home

Using a here is the most natural and common choice.

Does “Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai” imply a change (“has become expensive”), or just a state (“is expensive”)?

“yana da tsada sosai” mainly describes a state:
food at the market is very expensive (generally or at the present).

If you want to emphasize that it has become expensive (change over time), Hausa often uses “ya yi tsada”:

Abinci a kasuwa ya yi tsada sosai.
Food at the market has become very expensive.

So:

yana da tsada sosai – is (currently) very expensive (describing the situation).
ya yi tsada sosai – has grown / become very expensive (contrast with before).

Is the word order in the whole sentence fixed, or can parts move around?

The word order here is very natural:

Abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, don haka ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.

Approximate structure:

[Abinci a kasuwa] – topic: food at the market
[yana da tsada sosai] – comment: is very expensive
[, don haka] – so / therefore
[ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida] – I want to cook food at home

Possible variations:

You can drop ni (less emphasis on “I”):
- … don haka ina so in dafa abinci a gida.
You can move don haka to the start of the second clause (as it is) or occasionally to sentence-initial position:
- Don haka, abinci a kasuwa yana da tsada sosai, ni ina so in dafa abinci a gida.
  (less natural for everyday speech, but grammatically possible as a stylistic choice)

The core verb phrases themselves have fairly fixed internal order:

ina so in dafa abinci a gida
[prog. verb] [subjunctive verb] [object] [place]

You normally don’t scramble these elements much inside the clause.