Learn Hardcore Hausa: A lokacin rani ruwa ba ya yawa a kogi. - In the dry season there is not much water in the river.

So A lokacin rani literally means “at the time of (the) heat/dry season”, which is naturally translated as “in the dry season” or “during the dry season.”

What does rani mean exactly? Does it mean “summer” or “dry season”?

Rani literally refers to the hot, dry part of the year in the Sahel/West African climate.

In English, it’s usually best translated as “dry season.”
In some contexts people loosely say “summer,” but that can be misleading because Hausa speakers are thinking in terms of rainy vs. dry season, not four European-style seasons.

So in this sentence, understand rani as “the dry season.”

What is the role of the preposition a in this sentence?

The preposition a marks location in time or space and corresponds to English “in / at / on.”

In the sentence:

A lokacin rani – in the dry season (time)
a kogi – in the river (place)

It’s the same word a used twice, once for time, once for place.

Could I say Lokacin rani without a at the beginning? What changes?

Yes, you can say Lokacin rani without a, but the nuance is slightly different:

A lokacin rani – literally “at the time of the dry season” → very clearly a time expression, like “in the dry season.”
Lokacin rani – literally “the time of the dry season” → can function as a subject or topic, like “The dry season time…”

In many real sentences, both might work, but:

At the start of a sentence as a time-setting phrase, A lokacin rani is more natural:
A lokacin rani, ruwa ba ya yawa a kogi. – In the dry season, there isn’t much water in the river.
Lokacin rani would sound more like a noun phrase that still needs a verb:
Lokacin rani ya yi zafi. – The dry season time is hot.

What does ruwa mean, and does it have gender in Hausa?

Ruwa means water.

In Hausa, nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine). Ruwa is masculine, which is why later in the sentence you see the masculine pronoun ya referring back to it:

ruwa – water (masculine)
ya – he/it (masculine) → here: it (the water)

What does ba ya mean in ruwa ba ya yawa?

Ba ya is the negative form of the imperfective (ongoing/habitual) verb phrase.

Affirmative: ruwa yana yawa – the water is abundant / there is a lot of water
Negative: ruwa ba ya yawa – the water is *not abundant / there is not much water*

Breakdown:

ba – negative marker
ya – 3rd person masculine singular pronoun = “he/it”, agreeing with ruwa
yawa – “muchness, abundance”

So ruwa ba ya yawa literally means “as for the water, it (he) is not in abundance.”

Why is there a pronoun ya if we already have ruwa? Why not just say ruwa ba yawa?

In Hausa, when you use this kind of imperfective structure (with yana / ba ya / suna / ba sa, etc.), you normally have:

Subject noun
Matching subject pronoun
Predicate

So:

ruwa yana yawa – water is abundant
ruwa ba ya yawa – water is not abundant

The pronoun ya is required in this verbal-type structure to carry tense/aspect and agreement.

If you said only ruwa ba yawa, it would sound incomplete/incorrect, because you would be missing the verbal/auxiliary part (the pronoun with the aspect).

What does yawa mean, and is it a verb or an adjective?

Yawa means “muchness, plenty, abundance”. It’s basically a noun that functions like an abstract quality (similar to “abundance” in English).

In this structure:

(ruwa) yana yawa – it is in abundance / it is plenty
(ruwa) ba ya yawa – it is not in abundance / it is not plenty

Even though we translate yawa as “much / a lot”, grammatically it behaves more like a noun used as a predicate than a typical adjective.

Could I say ruwa bai yawa ba instead of ruwa ba ya yawa? What’s the difference?

Yes, ruwa bai yawa ba is a real phrase, but its nuance and structure differ:

ruwa ba ya yawa – negative imperfective:
In the dry season, there isn’t much water (it is not abundant, as a general/habitual situation).
ruwa bai yawa ba – negative “bai … ba” pattern, often used with adjectival / stative meanings, and often with a nuance of “not too much / not excessive.”
Example use: Ku sha ruwa, amman kada ya yawa. – Drink water, but not too much.

In the sentence about the river and seasons, ba ya yawa (habitual state in the dry season) is the more natural choice.
Bai yawa ba would sound more like “it’s not (too) much,” often in contexts of quantity being acceptable, moderate, etc.

Why is there no word for “there” as in “there is not much water”?

Hausa usually does not use a direct equivalent of English “there is/are”. Instead, it:

Puts the thing first,
Then uses an appropriate verbal or stative structure.

So instead of:

There is not much water (in the river).

Hausa says:

ruwa ba ya yawa a kogi – literally “water is not abundant in the river.”

The idea of “there is/are” is built into the existential / stative structure, not expressed with a separate word like “there.”

What does a kogi mean, and why isn’t there a word like “the”?

A kogi means “in the river.”

a – in/at
kogi – river

Hausa doesn’t have articles like “a/an” or “the.” Context tells you whether to translate it as “a river” or “the river.”

In this sentence, because we’re talking about the general state of a particular river during the dry season, natural English is “in the river.” But grammatically a kogi itself is just “in river / in a river / in the river,” depending on context.

How would I say the opposite: “In the rainy season, there is a lot of water in the river”?

You can mirror the structure of the original sentence and just change rani and the polarity:

A lokacin damina ruwa yana yawa a kogi.

Breakdown:

A lokacin damina – in the rainy season
- damina – rainy season
ruwa yana yawa – the water is abundant / there is a lot of water
- yana – affirmative imperfective (3rd person masc. sg.)
a kogi – in the river

So you get: “In the rainy season, there is a lot of water in the river.”

What is the overall literal structure of A lokacin rani ruwa ba ya yawa a kogi?

Word-for-word, you can think of it as:

A lokacin rani – At the time of the dry season / In the dry season
ruwa – (the) water
ba ya – is not (it not) [negative imperfective, masc. sg.]
yawa – much / in abundance
a kogi – in (the) river

So a fairly literal gloss is:

“In the dry season, water is not in abundance in the river.”
Which natural English renders as: “In the dry season, there isn’t much water in the river.”