Learn Hardcore Hausa: Akwai ƙaramin shago a gefen titi inda ake sayar da burodi da lemo. - There is a small shop at the side of the street where bread and soft drinks are sold.

Function: It states that something exists or is present somewhere.
- Akwai ƙaramin shago… = There is a small shop…
It does not take a normal subject pronoun:
- You say Akwai shago (There is a shop), not Yana akwai shago.
The common negative is babu:
- Babu shago a nan. = There is no shop here.
Tense is usually understood from context or time words:
- Jiya akwai mutane a nan. = Yesterday there were people here.

So yes, akwai plays the same basic role as English “there is/are,” but it behaves as a single fixed verb form.

Why is it ƙaramin shago and not just ƙarami shago?

In Hausa, when an adjective comes directly before a noun, it usually takes a linking ending (-n, -r, etc.), agreeing with the noun.

Base adjective: ƙarami = small (masc. sg.)
Before the noun shago (shop), it becomes:
- ƙaramin shago = small shop

Think of -n here as a linking sound that ties the adjective to the noun in an attributive phrase:

ƙaramin shago – a small shop
bakin mutum – the black person (from baƙi = black/dark, plus -n)
babban gida – a big house (from babba = big)

So ƙaramin shago is the normal, grammatically correct way to say “small shop” when the adjective is placed before the noun.

In English we say “a small shop”, but in Hausa the word order is ƙaramin shago. Is this the usual order?

Yes. In Hausa, adjectives normally come before the noun they describe when used in this kind of phrase, and they take that linking ending:

ƙaramin shago = small shop
babban gari = big town/city
tsawon titi = long road

You can have structures where the describing word comes after, but for simple adjective + noun combinations like this, the natural order is:

[adjective + linker] + [noun]

So ƙaramin shago is the standard way to say “small shop.”

What exactly does a gefen titi mean, word by word?

Breakdown of a gefen titi:

a = at / in / on (a general location preposition)
gefe = side, edge
gefen = the genitive form of gefe, meaning “side of…”
- The -n is a possessive/linking ending: side-of
titi = road / street

So a gefen titi literally means:

“at the side-of road” → at the side of the road / by the roadside

This N1-n N2 pattern (gefen titi) is very common in Hausa for “N1 of N2”:

ƙofar gida = door of the house
bangon ɗaki = wall of the room
gefen titi = side of the road

The a in front simply marks the location: “at the side of the road.”

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in ƙaramin shago or titi? How do articles work in Hausa?

Hausa does not have separate words like English “a/an” or “the.”

Definiteness and indefiniteness are handled by:

Context
- Akwai ƙaramin shago a gefen titi.
  In natural English this becomes: “There is a small shop by the side of the road.”
- The sentence introduces the shop, so English uses “a.”
Extra words when needed
- wani ƙaramin shago = a certain small shop / some small shop
- shagon nan = this shop / the shop (here)
- shagon da muka gani = the shop that we saw

So:

ƙaramin shago can be translated as “a small shop” or “the small shop” depending on context.
titi can be “the road”, “a road”, or just “road” in English, again depending on context.

In this sentence, natural English chooses “a small shop by the side of the road.”

What does inda mean in inda ake sayar da burodi da lemo?

Inda means “where” (a relative/connecting word of place).

In this sentence:

inda ake sayar da burodi da lemo
= “where bread and soft drinks are sold”

So the full structure is:

Akwai ƙaramin shago a gefen titi
inda ake sayar da burodi da lemo.
There is a small shop at the side of the road *where bread and soft drinks are sold.*

inda introduces a clause that describes the shop: the place where something happens.

What is the role of ake in inda ake sayar da…? Is it the verb “to do”?

Ake is related to the verb yi (to do), but here it is functioning as a tense/aspect marker in an impersonal, habitual/passive-like construction.

Very simplified:

ana sayar da burodi a nan.
= Bread is (being) sold here. / They sell bread here.
inda ake sayar da burodi
= where bread is sold / where they sell bread

Uses of ake here:

Impersonal subject
There is no explicit “they” or “people” as subject. Ake helps form a structure like:
- “bread is sold there” or “they sell bread there.”
Habitual / general present
It often suggests a regular, generally true action:
- Not just one-time, but a place where that kind of selling habitually happens.
Relative / focus context
Ake commonly appears in relative clauses or wh-/focus constructions:
- inda ake sayar da… – where they sell…
- abinda ake ci – what is eaten / what they eat

So ake here is not a simple lexical “do,” but part of the grammar that signals an ongoing/general activity in that location with no explicit subject.

What does sayar da mean, and how is it different from saya?

saya = to buy
sayar da = to sell

So they are near-opposites and easy to confuse.

sayar da is built as:

sayar da [thing] = to sell [thing]

In the sentence:

sayar da burodi da lemo = to sell bread and soft drinks

Note that da right after sayar is part of the verb pattern “sell something”:

sayar da mota = sell a car
sayar da littattafai = sell books

So:

saya burodi = buy bread
sayar da burodi = sell bread

There is da after sayar and also between burodi da lemo. Are these the same da?

They are the same word form, but performing two different roles:

In “sayar da X” – da is part of the verb construction:
- sayar da roughly = “sell (something)”
- da here is more like a complement marker, not “and.”
In “burodi da lemo” – da is a coordinating conjunction:
- burodi da lemo = bread and soft drinks
- Here da genuinely means “and.”

So in:

sayar da burodi da lemo

we have:

sayar da [burodi da lemo]
= sell [bread and soft drinks]

First da (after sayar) belongs to the verb pattern;
Second da (between burodi and lemo) simply means “and.”

Why are burodi and lemo not plural? In English we might think of “loaves of bread and bottles of soda.”

In Hausa, burodi (bread) and lemo (soft drink / soda / juice-like drink) often behave like mass or generic nouns, especially in this type of sentence:

sayar da burodi = sell bread
sayar da lemo = sell soft drinks / soda / refreshments

You don’t need to mark the plural here, because the meaning is “the shop sells bread and soft drinks (as products)”, which is naturally generic.

You could form plurals in other contexts (e.g. burŏdai, lemo-lemo), but for “things a shop sells,” using the basic forms burodi and lemo is the most idiomatic way to express it.

What tense or time does the whole sentence express? Is it present, habitual, or something else?

The sentence:

Akwai ƙaramin shago a gefen titi inda ake sayar da burodi da lemo.

is understood as present and generally true / habitual:

Akwai… = there is / there are (present existence)
ake sayar da… = bread and soft drinks are (habitually) sold there

A natural English rendering would be:

“There is a small shop at the side of the road where they sell bread and soft drinks.”
or: “… where bread and soft drinks are sold.”

There is no explicit past or future marking. If you wanted to place it in another time, you would add time words:

A baya, akwai ƙaramin shago…
In the past, there was a small shop…
A nan gaba, za a sami ƙaramin shago…
In the future, there will be a small shop…

How do I pronounce ƙaramin, titi, and what is the difference between ƙ and plain k?

Key points:

ƙ vs k
- k is a plain “k” sound, like in English “kit.”
- ƙ is an ejective “k” (glottalic): it’s tenser and “popped”, produced with a little burst of air from the glottis.
- Hausa distinguishes words by this:
  - kasa – soil, earth
  - ƙasa – country / land (political), or “down/below” in some contexts
ƙaramin
- Syllables: ƙa-ra-min
- Stress is fairly even; don’t reduce vowels like in English.
- Try to make the ƙ sound stronger and more “popped” than an English k.
titi
- Syllables: ti-ti
- Each ti is clear and separate, both i’s are pronounced like “ee” in “see.”
- No final consonant; it ends cleanly with a vowel sound.

Getting used to ƙ, ɓ, and ɗ (the ejective equivalents of k, b, d) is important in Hausa pronunciation, because they can change meanings.