Learn Hardcore Hausa: Malami ya ba mu umurni mu karanta labari biyu a gida. - The teacher gave us the order to read two stories at home.

Malami – teacher (a or the teacher, depending on context).
ya – 3rd person singular masculine subject marker in the perfective; roughly he (attached to the verb).
ba – verb to give.
mu – us / we here functioning as an object pronoun of ba → gave us.
umurni – order, command (a command).
mu – we as the subject of the next verb; marks we in the subordinate clause.
karanta – to read.
labari – story, tale, account (here: story).
biyu – two.
a – preposition meaning roughly in / at / on; here: at.
gida – house, home (here: home).

So structurally:
Malami (teacher) ya ba mu (gave us) umurni (an order) [mu karanta labari biyu a gida] (that we read two stories at home).

Why is there no word like “the” before Malami or labari biyu?

Hausa does not use separate words for “the” or “a / an” the way English does. Nouns are usually bare:

Malami can mean a teacher or the teacher.
labari biyu can mean two stories (with or without the).

Whether it is definite (the) or indefinite (a/some) is understood from context, not from a special article word. So:

Malami ya ba mu … can be A teacher gave us… or The teacher gave us…, depending on the situation.

Why is ya used instead of shi for “he”?

Hausa has two different kinds of pronouns:

Independent pronouns (standalone, used for emphasis or after prepositions):
- shi = he / him
- ita = she / her, etc.
Subject pronoun markers on the verb (must be attached to a verb):
- ya = he (perfective)
- ta = she (perfective), etc.

In this sentence the pronoun is directly attached to the verb ba (give), so you must use the subject marker:

Malami ya ba … = The teacher (he) gave …

You would use shi only in places like:

Shi ne malami. – He is the teacher.
A gare shi. – To him.

Why does mu appear twice (in ba mu and mu karanta)? Aren’t they the same “us / we”?

They are the same form mu, but they play two different grammatical roles:

ba mu – mu is the object pronoun of the verb ba:
- ya ba mu umurni = he gave us an order.
mu karanta – mu is the subject pronoun of the verb karanta inside the subordinate clause:
- mu karanta labari biyu a gida = that we read two stories at home.

So the structure is:

Main clause: Malami ya ba mu umurni – The teacher gave us an order
Complement clause: mu karanta labari biyu a gida – that we (should) read two stories at home

English also repeats the pronoun if you say it fully:
The teacher gave us an order that we should read two stories at home.

Why is mu placed right after ba, before umurni? Could I say ya ba umurni mu instead?

With the verb ba (to give), the pronoun objects normally come right after the verb, and then any full noun objects follow:

Ya ba ni littafi. – He gave me a book.
Ya ba mu umurni. – He gave us an order.
(verb ba
- pronoun mu
  - noun umurni)

Putting the pronoun later, like *ya ba umurni mu, is not natural. The normal order is:

[Verb] + [pronoun object] + [noun object]

So ya ba mu umurni is the normal pattern.

What kind of structure is mu karanta? Is it like “that we should read”?

Yes. mu karanta here is a kind of subjunctive / command-like clause:

mu – subject pronoun we in this “subjunctive” slot
karanta – bare verb read

After an expression of order, request, wish, etc., Hausa often uses:

[subject pronoun] + [bare verb]

to mean “that X should do Y”:

Ya ba mu umurni mu karanta …
= He gave us an order (for) us to read …
≈ He ordered us to read …

Other examples:

Ina so mu tafi. – I want us to go.
Ya ce su zo. – He said that they should come.

Why is it labari biyu and not biyu labari for “two stories”?

In Hausa, cardinal numerals (two, three, four, …) normally:

come after the noun they count
do not need any extra word like “of”

So:

labari biyu – two stories
littafi uku – three books
mutum huɗu – four people

The order *biyu labari is not used for “two stories”. The noun comes first, the number second.

But labari looks singular. Why is singular labari used if it means “two stories”?

You’re right that labari by itself is a singular form (a story). In Hausa, though, when you add a number, the idea of plurality is already clear, so many nouns can stay in what looks like the singular:

labari biyu – literally story two → two stories
motar su uku – their three cars (in some styles, the noun stays un-changed)

So labari biyu is perfectly natural and means two stories.

You may also encounter plural forms (e.g. labarai biyu) in some styles or dialects, but the important point is: with a numeral, Hausa does not always have to show plural on the noun itself.

What exactly does a mean in a gida, and can I leave it out?

a is a very common preposition in Hausa. Its core meanings are:

in, at, on (location)
sometimes by, with depending on context

In a gida it marks a location:

a gida – at home / in the house

Compare:

Ina gida. – I am at home. (no a, idiomatic fixed pattern)
Ina a gida. – also heard; explicitly “I am at the house”.
Sun taru a makaranta. – They gathered at school.

In this specific sentence, a gida is the normal way to say at home. Omitting a here would sound incomplete or wrong:

✔ mu karanta labari biyu a gida – that we read two stories at home
✖ *mu karanta labari biyu gida – ungrammatical.

Does ya ba mean specifically past tense “gave”, or can it also mean “has given / has told us to read”?

ya ba is the perfective form. Its basic meaning is that the action is completed. In English it often corresponds to:

simple past: He gave us an order…
or present perfect in the right context: He has given us an order…

Which English tense you choose depends on the wider context, not on a change in the Hausa form.

So:

Malami ya ba mu umurni mu karanta labari biyu a gida.
can be translated as
- The teacher gave us an order to read two stories at home.
  or
- The teacher has given us an order to read two stories at home.

Both fit the Hausa perfective.

How would the sentence change if the teacher is female?

Two things change:

The noun for teacher (male vs. female).
The subject marker on the verb (he vs. she).

Malami – male teacher → subject marker ya (he).
Malama – female teacher → subject marker ta (she).

So for a female teacher you would say:

Malama ta ba mu umurni mu karanta labari biyu a gida.
= The (female) teacher gave us an order to read two stories at home.