Breakdown of Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya.
Questions & Answers about Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya.
Hausa usually doesn’t use a separate verb like English “is / am / are”.
Instead, it uses small particles called copulas: ne, ce, ne/nee, ce/cee, and often a pronoun + copula.
In Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya:
- shi ne together functions like “is”, but with a nuance of focus (emphasis).
- Literally: “The most important thing for everyone, it is truth.”
So the “is-ness” is expressed by shi ne, not by a regular verb like in English.
Abu basically means “thing”.
So Abu mafi muhimmanci = “the most important thing”.
You could, in theory, say something like Mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya and people would still understand you, but it sounds a bit incomplete or less natural. Abu makes it explicitly “the (one) thing that is most important”.
So:
- abu = thing
- abu mafi muhimmanci = the most important thing
Mafi is a marker used to form the superlative (“most …”) with adjectives.
- muhimmi = important
- mafi muhimmanci ≈ “most important”
So in this sentence:
- mafi
- muhimmanci → “the most important”
Compare:
- Yaro mai kyau – a good boy
- Yaro mafi kyau – the best boy (lit. “boy most good”)
So mafi is what turns “important” into “most important”.
Both forms exist, but they have slightly different roles:
- muhimmi is an adjective: important
- muhimmanci is an abstract noun: importance
In practice, Hausa often uses mafi plus the -nci noun form to express a superlative:
- muhimmi → muhimmanci (importance)
- mafi muhimmanci – literally “of greatest importance”, used as “most important”
So Abu mafi muhimmanci is like saying:
- “The thing of greatest importance” → “the most important thing.”
You will also hear expressions like:
- Abu mai muhimmanci – an important thing (not necessarily the most important one)
- Abu mafi muhimmanci – the most important thing
Ga is a preposition that very often corresponds to “to / for / at” in English, depending on context.
In ga kowa:
- ga ≈ “to / for”
- kowa = “everyone / everybody”
So ga kowa here is best understood as:
- “for everyone”
Other examples:
- Ba kome ga ni – It’s nothing to me / It doesn’t matter to me
- Kyauta ga yara – A gift for children
Kowa on its own means “everyone / everybody / each person”.
- ga kowa – for everyone
You can add duk to emphasize “every single one / all of them”:
- duk kowa – literally “all everyone” → “absolutely everyone, every single person”
In many contexts, kowa is enough and is the natural choice.
Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa already clearly means “the most important thing for everyone.”
Shi ne is a pronoun + copula structure that:
- Links the subject to the complement (like “is”), and
- Puts focus on the complement.
In Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya:
- Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa – “The most important thing for everyone”
- shi ne – “it is (focussed)”
- gaskiya – “truth”
Literally: “The most important thing for everyone, it is truth.”
Could you say Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa gaskiya ne?
Yes, it’s understandable, and some speakers might say something like that, but shi ne is a very standard, natural way to make this kind of equative sentence and to keep agreement clear (see next question).
Hausa makes gender agreement with these pronoun + copula forms.
- shi ne – masculine singular
- ita ce – feminine singular
The pronoun refers back to the logical subject. Here the head noun is:
- abu – grammatically masculine
So it must be:
- Abu … shi ne … – “the thing … it is …”
If the head noun were feminine, you’d use ita ce:
- Rana mafi muhimmanci ita ce Juma’a.
“The most important day is Friday.” (rana “day” is feminine)
So shi ne here agrees with abu.
Yes, you can change the order, but you slightly change what is in focus.
Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya.
– “The most important thing for everyone is truth.”
Focus: truth is what qualifies as that ‘most important thing’.Gaskiya ce abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa.
– Literally: “Truth, it is the most important thing for everyone.”
Focus: truth is being identified and emphasized as that thing.
Both are grammatical; they just distribute emphasis differently. In normal teaching contexts, the first form is more typical for the target sentence.
Hausa does not have a separate word equivalent to English “the”.
Definiteness is expressed by:
- Context (shared knowledge)
- Position and structure
- Sometimes suffixes or pronouns
In this sentence:
- Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa is naturally understood as “the most important thing for everyone”, not “a most important thing”, because the superlative structure (mafi muhimmanci) already suggests uniqueness.
So there is no visible “the”, but the meaning is definite.
Gaskiya is a very rich word in Hausa. It can mean:
- truth (what is true, reality)
- honesty / sincerity
- As an exclamation: “Really?” / “Honestly!”
In this sentence:
- Abu mafi muhimmanci ga kowa shi ne gaskiya.
The natural translations are:- “The most important thing for everyone is truth.”
- “The most important thing for everyone is honesty.”
Context would decide whether you want to stress truth in a philosophical sense, or honesty as a moral quality; the Hausa word comfortably covers both.
You need a plural for “things” and a plural agreeing structure:
- Abubuwa mafi muhimmanci ga kowa – the most important things for everyone
- abu → abubuwa (plural) = “things”
One natural way to continue:
- Abubuwa mafi muhimmanci ga kowa su ne gaskiya da ƙauna.
- su ne – “they are” (plural pronoun + copula)
- gaskiya – truth
- ƙauna – love
Literally: “The most important things for everyone, they are truth and love.”
It is neutral and natural. You can use:
- in everyday speech,
- in teaching,
- in writing (e.g. moral advice, sermons, motivational texts).
The vocabulary (abu, mafi muhimmanci, gaskiya) is standard and widely understood; nothing is slangy or overly formal.