Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ni ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin. - I want to watch an interesting film on television.

Ni = an independent / emphatic pronoun. It’s used for emphasis or contrast, like “ME, I want…”
ina = this is part of the verb complex and already includes the subject “I” plus an aspect marker (roughly “I am / I do”).

So:

Ni ina so… ≈ “Me, I want…” (emphasizing the subject)
Ina so… ≈ “I want…” (normal, neutral)

You don’t need Ni grammatically; it just adds emphasis or contrast (e.g. Ni ina so… amma kai ba ka so – I want to…, but you don’t).

Can I just say Ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin?

Yes. That’s the most typical everyday way to say it.

Full sentence with emphasis: Ni ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin.
Neutral version: Ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin.

Both are correct. The second is what you’ll probably use most of the time.

What exactly does ina so in kalla literally mean? There’s no separate word for “to” like in “to watch”.

Piece by piece:

ina – “I (imperfect/progressive)” – roughly “I am / I (habitually)…”
so – “want / like / love”
- ina so = “I want / I like”
in – a subjunctive pronoun for “I” (used in “I want to do X” type structures)
kalla – “watch / look at”

So ina so in kalla is literally something like:

“I want (that) I watch …”

In English we express that with “I want to watch…”; Hausa uses ina so + subjunctive clause (in + verb) instead of a special infinitive “to watch”.

What is the function of in before kalla?

in is the 1st person singular subjunctive pronoun (“that I …”), used after verbs like so (want), iya (be able), ƙi (refuse), etc.

Rough pattern:

Ina so in kalla… – I want to watch…
Ina so ka kalla… – I want you to watch…
Ina so ya kalla… – I want him to watch…

Forms (very simplified):

in – that I …
ka / ki – that you (m./f. sg.) …
ya / ta – that he / she …
mu – that we …
ku – that you (pl.) …
su – that they …

So in kalla = “(that) I watch”.

Can I say Ina son kallon fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin instead? Is it the same meaning?

Yes, that’s also correct, and the meaning is essentially the same:

Ina so in kalla fim…
Ina son kallon fim…

The difference is structure:

Verb + subjunctive verb
- Ina so in kalla fim…
- “I want to watch a film…”
Verb + verbal noun
- Ina son kallon fim…
- so here behaves more like a noun “desire/liking”:
  - son = “liking/love of”
  - kallo = “watching / a watch” (verbal noun)
  - kallon fim = “watching of a film”

Both are natural. Many learners find Ina so in kalla… easier to start with.

What is the difference between kalla and kallo / kallon?

kalla – verb “to watch / to look at”
- Ina so in kalla fim. – I want to watch a film.
kallo – verbal noun “watching / a look”
- kallo by itself = the activity “watching” or “a look”
kallon – genitive form of kallo, “watching of…”
- kallon fim – “watching of a film”
- Ina son kallon fim. – I want the watching of a film / I want to watch a film.

So kalla = verb, kallo(n) = noun based on that verb.

Why does mai ban sha'awa come after fim, instead of before it like English “interesting film”?

In Hausa, descriptive elements usually come after the noun:

English: interesting film
Hausa: fim mai ban sha'awa (literally “film that has/causes interest”)

Other examples:

mutum mai hankali – a sensible person (person with sense)
mota ja – a red car (car red)
gida babba – a big house (house big)

So the basic order is: NOUN + describing phrase, not the other way round.

What does mai ban sha'awa literally break down to?

It’s a compact expression:

mai – “one who has / possessor of / that which has”
ba / ba da – “to give”
- in this fixed phrase it appears as ban (“giving / that gives”)
sha'awa – “interest, desire, fascination”

So:

ban sha'awa ≈ “giving interest”
mai ban sha'awa ≈ “one that has/gives interest” → “interesting”

Thus:

fim mai ban sha'awa = “a film that has/gives interest” → “an interesting film”.

Does so mean “want” or “like/love”?

so covers all of these, depending on context:

want:
- Ina so in kalla fim. – I want to watch a film.
- Ina so in sha shayi. – I want to drink tea.
like / love:
- Ina son ki. – I love you (to a woman).
- Ina son wannan gari. – I like / love this town.
- Yara suna son kwallon ƙafa. – Children like football.

So one verb so does the work of English “want” and “like/love”; the object and context tell you which reading fits.

Is a in a talabijin “in”, “on”, or “at”? How should I think of it?

a is a very general locative preposition; it can correspond to “in / on / at” depending on the noun and context.

a gida – at home / in the house
a kasuwa – at the market
a Nigeria – in Nigeria
a talabijin – on television

In your sentence, a talabijin is best translated as “on television”, because that’s how English talks about TV broadcasts.

Could I say akan talabijin instead of a talabijin?

Usually no in this context; a talabijin is the normal phrase for “on TV”.

Rough difference:

a – general “in / at / on” (location, medium, place)
akan – more literally “on top of / over / about”

Examples:

Littafin yana a tebur. – The book is on the table.
Kayan suna a cikin jaka. – The things are in the bag.
Suna tattaunawa akan siyasa. – They are discussing politics (about politics).

For television as a medium, you say a talabijin, not akan talabijin.

There is no word for “a” in fim mai ban sha'awa. How do you say “a film” versus “the film” in Hausa?

Hausa doesn’t use a separate word like “a” or “the” most of the time. The default bare noun is usually indefinite (“a / some”):

Ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa.
- = I want to watch an interesting film.

To make it clearly “a certain / some particular” film, you can add wani:

Ina so in kalla wani fim mai ban sha'awa.
- I want to watch a certain / some interesting film.

To make it more clearly definite (“the film”), Hausa often uses a -n / -ɗin / -din ending, or just relies on context:

Ina so in kalla fim ɗin. – I want to watch the film (we both know which one).
Fim ɗin mai ban sha'awa ne. – The film is interesting.

So:

fim – a film / films (indefinite/general)
wani fim – a (certain) film
fim ɗin – the film (specific, known)

If I wanted to say “I want to watch an interesting film at the cinema”, how would I change this sentence?

You mainly change the location phrase:

Ni ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a talabijin.
- I want to watch an interesting film on TV.

At the cinema:

Ni ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a sinima.
- “I want to watch an interesting film at the cinema.”

You can also say:

…a gidan sinima. – at the cinema building / movie theater
- Ni ina so in kalla fim mai ban sha'awa a gidan sinima.

Everything else in the sentence stays the same.

How do you pronounce sha'awa, and what is the apostrophe doing there?

sha'awa has three syllables and includes a glottal stop:

sha – like “sha” in “shark”
'a – a short “a” sound, but separated from the previous vowel by a glottal stop (like the break in “uh-oh”)
wa – like “wa” in “water”

So it’s roughly: sha-ʔa-wa (sha-ah-wa, with a little catch in the throat between sha and a).

The apostrophe ' in Hausa orthography often marks this glottal stop and also helps show that the vowels are separate syllables, not one long vowel.