Learn Hardcore Hausa: Amma makarantar sakandare a birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa. - But the secondary school in the city has the most students.

It normally connects this sentence to a previous idea, often a contrast:
- Anan ba a da yawa ɗalibai. Amma makarantar sakandare a birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa.
  “Here there are not many students. But the secondary school in the city has more students.”
You don’t have to use Amma at the beginning of every sentence that starts with “but” in English. It’s only used when you really want to show contrast with what came before.

Why is it makarantar sakandare, not just makaranta sakandare?

Makaranta = “school”.
When it becomes makarantar, that final -r is a linking / genitive ending that often corresponds to “the school of …” or “the … school”.

makaranta = a school (indefinite, citation form)
makarantar sakandare = “the school of secondary (level)” → secondary school

This structure is very common in Hausa noun–noun combinations:

gidan cin abinci = “house of eating food” → restaurant
motar haya = “car of hire” → taxi

So makarantar sakandare is a natural way to say “secondary school”.

What exactly does sakandare mean here? Is it an adjective?

Sakandare is a noun borrowed from English “secondary” (via older colonial usage). In phrases like makarantar sakandare, it functions like a kind of classifier or descriptive noun, similar to an adjective in English.

Literally: makarantar sakandare = “school of secondary [level]”
Idiomatically: secondary school

So grammatically it is a noun, but it serves to specify the type of school, like an adjective does in English.

How does a birni work? Is a a preposition like “in”?

Yes. A is a common locative preposition that usually corresponds to “in / at / on” depending on context.

a birni = “in (the) city”
a gida = “at home / in the house”
a makaranta = “at school”

Birni specifically means “city” (often a larger, more urban place), while gari can mean “town” or “village” depending on context.

Why is the verb phrase tana da used to mean “has”? What does each part mean?

Tana da breaks down like this:

ta- = 3rd person singular feminine subject prefix
-na = continuous/progressive aspect marker
da = “with” → used to express possession

So tana da literally feels like “she is with” → “she has”.

Compare with other persons:

Ina da kuɗi. = “I have money.”
Kana da mota. (to a man) = “You have a car.”
Tana da mota. (to/ about a woman, or a feminine noun) = “She has a car.”

In this sentence, tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa = “it (she) has more / most students.”

Why is it tana da, not yana da? How do we know it’s feminine?

In Hausa, nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), and verbs agree with that gender.

Makaranta (school) is grammatically feminine.
Feminine 3rd person singular uses tana (“she/it is”) instead of yana (“he/it is”).

So:

Makaranta tana da ɗalibai.
“The school has students.” (feminine agreement)

If the subject were a masculine noun, you’d use yana:

Asibiti yana da likitoci da yawa.
“The hospital has many doctors.” (asibiti is masculine)

What does ɗalibai mean, and what is its singular form?

Ɗalibai means “students” (plural).

The singular is ɗalibi = “student”.

This is an example of a broken plural in Hausa, where the internal vowels change:

ɗa·lí·bi → ɗa·lí·bai (student → students)

You will see many such patterns: the plural is not just -s or simple suffixing.

What does ɗalibai mafi yawa literally mean? Is it “many students” or “most students”?

Literally:

ɗalibai = students
mafi = “most / more (than all others)”
yawa = quantity, muchness → “many / a lot”

So ɗalibai mafi yawa = “students of the greatest quantity” =

either “more students (than X)” (comparative)
or “the most students” (superlative), depending on context.

In isolation, English might translate it as “the most students”, but in a comparison between two specific schools, it may be understood as “more students (than the other one)”. Context clarifies.

How is mafi used in Hausa to make comparisons and superlatives?

Mafi is used with adjectives or quantity words to form “most / -est” (superlative) or sometimes “more” (comparative in certain patterns).

Examples:

mafi girma = biggest / greatest (literally “most big”)
mafi kyau = best / most beautiful (“most good / beautiful”)
mafi yawa = the most (in quantity)

For clearer comparisons, Hausa often adds fiye da (“more than”):

Makarantar birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa fiye da wadda ke ƙauye.
“The school in the city has more students than the one in the village.”

Here, mafi yawa fiye da explicitly marks “more … than”. Without fiye da, mafi yawa can often be understood as “the most” in a set.

Why does mafi yawa come after ɗalibai? Could it come before like in English “many students”?

In Hausa, describing words (adjectives, quantifiers) typically come after the noun they describe.

ɗalibai mafi yawa = students most many → “the most students”
mutane da yawa = people many → “many people”
gida babba = house big → “a big house”

So the normal order is:

Noun + (adjective / quantity / descriptive element)

Putting mafi yawa before ɗalibai would be ungrammatical in Hausa.

What is the difference between ɗalibai da yawa and ɗalibai mafi yawa?

They both talk about quantity but are not the same:

ɗalibai da yawa
- Literally: “students with much [quantity]”
- Meaning: “many students” (a lot, but not specifically comparing to others)
ɗalibai mafi yawa
- Literally: “students of the most quantity”
- Meaning: “more students / the most students”, i.e., in comparison to other groups.

So:

Use ɗalibai da yawa when you just want to say there are many students.
Use ɗalibai mafi yawa when you imply they are more than some other group(s).

Can this sentence work on its own, or does Amma mean it must follow another sentence?

Grammatically, it can stand on its own, but Amma is a contrastive connector, so in natural discourse it almost always refers back to something earlier.

As a standalone statement in conversation, many speakers would simply say:
- Makarantar sakandare a birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa.
If it follows a contrasting statement, then Amma is very appropriate:
- Makarantar sakandare a ƙauye ba ta da ɗalibai da yawa. Amma makarantar sakandare a birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa.
  “The secondary school in the village doesn’t have many students. But the secondary school in the city has more students.”

Could I say Makarantar sakandare da ke birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa instead of … a birni? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, and both are correct, with a small nuance:

a birni = “in the city” (simple location)
da ke birni = “that is in the city” (a relative clause: “which is in the city”)

So:

Makarantar sakandare a birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa.
“The secondary school in the city has the most / more students.”
Makarantar sakandare da ke birni tana da ɗalibai mafi yawa.
“The secondary school that is in the city has the most / more students.”

The second version sounds slightly more explicit and formal, but in everyday speech a birni is very natural and common.