Learn Hardcore Hausa: Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. - I bought a cap at the market yesterday.

So Na saya… means something like “I have bought / I bought…”, with the idea that the action is completed. You don’t add another separate past tense word; na already carries that information in this type of sentence.

Could I say Ni na saya hula a kasuwa jiya? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Ni na saya hula a kasuwa jiya.

Difference in nuance:

Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – Neutral: I bought a hat at the market yesterday.
Ni na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – Puts emphasis on “I”, a bit like:
“I (not someone else) bought a hat at the market yesterday.”

Ni is the independent pronoun “I / me”, and using Ni na… gives a contrastive or emphatic feel.

Why is there no word for “a” (as in “a hat”) or “the” (as in “the market”)?

Hausa generally doesn’t use separate articles like English a/an/the.

hula can mean “a hat” or “the hat”, depending on context.
kasuwa can mean “a market” or “the market”, again from context.

If you need to be more specific, Hausa usually uses possessive forms or demonstratives, for example:

hulata – my hat
hular nan – this hat
hular da na saya jiya – the hat that I bought yesterday

But there’s no obligatory article in front like in English.

What exactly does a mean in a kasuwa? Is it more like “in” or “at”?

a is a general locative preposition. Depending on context, it can often be translated as:

in
at
sometimes on or inside

In this sentence:

a kasuwa → in/at the market

So Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya can naturally be translated as “I bought a hat at the market yesterday.”
If you really want to stress “inside” the market, you can also say:

Na saya hula a cikin kasuwa jiya. – literally “in the inside of the market.”

Can I change the word order, for example move jiya to the beginning?

Yes. Word order is fairly flexible for time expressions and place expressions, especially for emphasis:

Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – Neutral: I bought a hat at the market yesterday.
Jiya na saya hula a kasuwa. – Yesterday I bought a hat at the market. (emphasis on yesterday)
Na saya hula jiya a kasuwa. – Still understandable, but place usually comes before time, so a kasuwa jiya is more typical.

The core order of subject – verb – object is stable:

Na (subject) – saya (verb) – hula (object)

Is hula definitely singular? How would I say “hats”?

Yes, hula in this sentence is singular: “a hat / the hat”.

For plural:

huluna – hats

So:

Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – I bought a hat at the market yesterday.
Na sayi huluna a kasuwa jiya. – I bought hats at the market yesterday.

How would I say “I bought the hat”, not just “a hat”?

You can make it more specific using context or a modifying phrase. Some options:

If both speakers already know which hat you mean, Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya can naturally be understood as “I bought the hat at the market yesterday.” Context does the work.
You can specify which hat:
- Na saya hular da muka gani a kasuwa jiya.
  – I bought the hat that we saw at the market yesterday.
- Na sayi waccan hular a kasuwa jiya.
  – I bought that hat at the market yesterday.

There’s no simple article like “the” to just stick in front of hula.

How would I say “I will buy a hat at the market tomorrow” instead?

You mainly change:

the tense/aspect marker from na (perfective/past) to zan (future),
and the time word from jiya (yesterday) to gobe (tomorrow).

Sentence:

Zan sayi hula a kasuwa gobe.
– I will buy a hat at the market tomorrow.

Notes:

zan = za + ni (future marker + “I”).
Many speakers say sayi in the future: Zan sayi hula…

Is there a difference between saya and sayi in this kind of sentence?

You will see both saya and sayi related to the verb “to buy”.

In many descriptions of modern standard Hausa:

Root/Dictionary form: often given as saya.
Perfective 1st person sg.: commonly heard as Na sayi hula… or Na saya hula…, depending on region and style.

In everyday speech:

Na sayi hula a kasuwa jiya.
Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya.

Both can be heard; preference varies by dialect and speaker. As a learner, you can treat them as the same verb “to buy”, and follow the pattern you’re taught in your course or by your teacher.

How would I say “I bought it at the market yesterday” if we already know “it” is a hat?

You can replace hula with an object pronoun referring to a feminine noun (many Hausa nouns ending in ‑a are grammatically feminine). hula is feminine, so use ta (her/it):

Na saya ta a kasuwa jiya.
– I bought it at the market yesterday. (where “it” = the hat)

If the object were masculine, you’d use shi:

Na saya shi a kasuwa jiya. – I bought it (masc.) at the market yesterday.

Why is kasuwa used without anything like “to the”? In English we say “to the market”, but Hausa just has a kasuwa.

English and Hausa structure this slightly differently:

English often stresses motion: “I went to the market”, “I bought this at the market.”
Hausa often uses a locative phrase with a to show location rather than an explicit “to” for motion in sentences like this.

So:

Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – literally: “I bought a hat in/at market yesterday.”

If you wanted to talk explicitly about going to the market, you might say:

Na je kasuwa jiya. – I went to the market yesterday.

But for where you bought something, a kasuwa (“at/in the market”) is enough.

Where does jiya usually go in the sentence? Is it always at the end?

jiya (yesterday) is a time word, and such adverbials are flexible in Hausa. Common positions:

End position (very common):
Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – very natural.
Beginning (emphasis on time):
Jiya na saya hula a kasuwa.
After the verb (less common here):
Na saya jiya a kasuwa. – understandable, but most speakers prefer place before time.

So it’s not strictly fixed at the end, but end position (after the place phrase) is the most typical in simple past statements like this.

How would I say “I was buying a hat at the market yesterday” (continuous or ongoing action)?

You switch from the perfective (na saya) to the imperfective/continuous form with ina:

Ina sayen hula a kasuwa jiya.
– I was buying a hat at the market yesterday.
(or: I was in the process of buying a hat…)

Notes:

ina = I (continuous / progressive).
The verb takes a ‑n / ‑en form: saye → sayen before a following noun (hula).

Contrast:

Na saya hula a kasuwa jiya. – completed action: I bought a hat…
Ina sayen hula a kasuwa jiya. – ongoing past action: I was buying a hat…