Learn Hardcore Hausa: Na tura wa malama imel da hoton aikin gida na. - I sent the female teacher an email with a picture of my homework.

Without wa, malama can be harder to interpret as a recipient, especially in more complex sentences. Native speakers do sometimes drop wa in casual speech, but the most standard and clear form for “send to someone” is:

tura wa X = send to X

Other common patterns with recipients:

Na ba wa malama littafi. – I gave the teacher a book.
Na siya wa yara alewa. – I bought sweets for the children.

So you might hear Na tura malama imel, but Na tura wa malama imel is the clear, textbook form.

What does malama mean exactly, and how is it different from malami?

Both come from the same root malam- (“learned person, teacher”), but they differ in gender:

malami – male teacher
malama – female teacher

In your sentence:

Na tura wa malama… = I sent (something) to the female teacher.

So if the teacher were a man, you’d say:

Na tura wa malami imel da hoton aikin gida na.
– I sent the (male) teacher an email and a picture of my homework.

Why is the word order Na tura wa malama imel… instead of Na tura imel wa malama like in English “I sent an email to the teacher”?

Hausa typically uses this order for a verb with two objects:

Subject – Verb – Recipient (with wa) – Thing sent/given

So:

Na tura – I sent
wa malama – to the teacher (recipient / indirect object)
imel da hoton aikin gida na – an email and a picture of my homework (thing sent / direct object)

This pattern is very common:

Na ba wa malami littafi. – I gave the teacher a book.
Na aika wa mahaifiyata saƙo. – I sent my mother a message.

You can change the order for emphasis in some contexts, but “S V wa + recipient + thing” is the basic, neutral pattern.

Does da here mean “and” or “with”? How should I understand imel da hoton aikin gida na?

Da in Hausa can mean both “and” and “with”, depending on context. Here:

imel da hoton aikin gida na

can be understood in two closely related ways:

“an email and a picture of my homework” (simple and between two objects)
“an email with a picture of my homework (attached)” (with, comitative/instrumental)

In everyday speech, that distinction is usually not crucial—native speakers would understand that you sent the email and that the picture of your homework was included in that sending.

If you really wanted to emphasize “two separate things”:

Na tura wa malama imel, kuma na tura mata hoto na aikin gida.
– I sent the teacher an email, and I also sent her a picture of my homework.

But in your original sentence, da naturally covers both “and/with.”

Why is it hoton and not just hoto?

Hoto means “picture / photo” on its own.
Hoton is the “linking” form used when “picture” is followed by what it’s a picture of.

In Hausa, when one noun directly modifies another (a kind of “X of Y” or “Y’s X” relationship), the first noun usually takes a linker ending:

Noun + -n / -r / -n
- thing it belongs to or describes

Here:

hoto (picture) → hoton because it is followed by another noun phrase: aikin gida na.

So:

hoton aikin gida na = “the picture of my homework”

Other examples:

littafin yaro – the boy’s book / the book of the boy
motar malama – the teacher’s car (female teacher)
sunan gari – the name of the town

So hoton is the expected linking form before aikin gida na.

How does aikin gida end up meaning “homework”?

Literally, aikin gida is:

aiki – work
-n – linker
gida – house / home

So aikin gida = “work of the home / house work”.

By convention, aikin gida is used for school homework (assignments you do at home), just as English uses “homework” metaphorically.

Within your full phrase:

hoton aikin gida na
= the picture of my homework

Breakdown:

hoto-n – picture (linker)
aiki-n – work (linker)
gida – home
na – my

Literally: the picture of the work of home my → a picture of my homework.

The sentence starts with Na and ends with na. Are these the same word? Why are they in two places?

They look the same in writing, but they are actually two different forms:

Na at the beginning (Na tura…)
- This is the 1st person singular subject + perfective marker.
- Meaning: “I (did something already)”.
na at the end (…aikin gida na)
- This is the independent possessive pronoun for “my”.
- It attaches to or follows a noun phrase:
  - littafina / littafi na – my book
  - aikin gida na – my homework

So:

First Na = I (past/completed)
Final na = my

They’re related historically, but in modern grammar they have different functions: one is subject+aspect, the other is possessive.

Why is the possessive na after aikin gida, not before it like English “my homework”?

Hausa usually puts the possessive pronoun after the noun (or noun phrase) it possesses, not before it:

littafi na – my book (literally: book my)
motarka / motar ka – your car (car your)
gidanmu / gida-n mu – our house (house our)

In your sentence:

aikin gida na
– homework my → my homework

Here, na possesses the whole phrase aikin gida (“homework”). That’s why it comes at the very end.

You will also see possessive pronouns attached directly as suffixes or written separately; both are common:

aikin gidana
aikin gida na

Both are understandable, but aikin gida na is very clear for learners: you can see the structure “homework + my.”

Is there any way to mark “the” in “the teacher”, “the email”, etc.? I don’t see a word for “the” in the sentence.

Hausa has no separate word exactly like English “the”.
Instead, definiteness is shown by:

Context
Sometimes adding a linker -n / -r / -n at the end of a noun (especially in certain positions).

In your sentence:

malama – usually understood as “the teacher” from context
imel – usually understood as “the email” or “an email”, depending on context

If you want to be more explicitly definite, especially in careful or written Hausa, you might see:

malamar – the teacher (female), in certain contexts
imel ɗin – the email (using ɗin as a definite marker)
hoton aikin gidan nan – the picture of this homework, etc.

A more “strongly definite” version could be:

Na tura wa malamar imel ɗin da hoton aikin gidana.
– I sent the (female) teacher the email and the picture of my homework.

But in many real conversations, the original simple form is perfectly natural, and definiteness comes from context.

How would this sentence change for other subjects, like “He sent…” or “We sent…”?

You mainly change the subject + perfective marker at the beginning. The rest of the sentence stays the same.

Using tura (to send) in the perfective:

Na tura wa malama… – I sent to the teacher…
Ka tura wa malama… – You (m.sg) sent to the teacher…
Kin tura wa malama… – You (f.sg) sent to the teacher…
Ya tura wa malama… – He sent to the teacher…
Ta tura wa malama… – She sent to the teacher…
Mun tura wa malama… – We sent to the teacher…
Kun tura wa malama… – You (pl) sent to the teacher…
Sun tura wa malama… – They sent to the teacher…

So, for example:

Ya tura wa malama imel da hoton aikin gida na.
– He sent the teacher an email and a picture of my homework.
Mun tura wa malama imel da hoton aikin gida mu.
– We sent the teacher an email and a picture of our homework.

Could I use another verb like aika instead of tura? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can use aika; both tura and aika can mean “to send”, but there is a slight nuance:

tura – very common, general “send, push forward” (messages, people, things).
aika – also “send”, sometimes with a flavor of dispatching, often used a lot with messages, letters, people being sent on errands.

Your sentence with aika:

Na aika wa malama imel da hoton aikin gida na.
– I sent the teacher an email and a picture of my homework.

Both verbs are natural here. In many contexts they’re interchangeable, with tura being extremely common in everyday speech for “send (a message, file, etc.)”.

How would I say this in the progressive or future, like “I am sending…” or “I will send…”?

Change the aspect marker in front of the verb:

Progressive / habitual (present) – use Ina
- verbal noun (often with -wa):
- Ina turawa malama imel da hoton aikin gida na.
  – I am sending / I (usually) send the teacher an email and a picture of my homework.
Future – use Zan
- bare verb:
- Zan tura wa malama imel da hoton aikin gida na.
  – I will send the teacher an email and a picture of my homework.

So the frame changes from:

Na tura… – I sent…

to:

Ina turawa… – I am sending…
Zan tura… – I will send…