Learn Hardcore Hausa: Haske daga fitila yana sa ɗakin karatu ya yi kyau. - Light from the lamp makes the library look nice.

In this sentence, Haske daga fitila = The light from the lamp.
It does not mean lamp itself; that is fitila.
It can refer to physical light (from a lamp, the sun, etc.) or more abstract brightness, depending on the context.

2. What is the function of daga in Haske daga fitila?

Daga is a preposition that usually means from.

Haske daga fitila literally = light from lamp.
So the structure is:
- Haske – light
- daga – from
- fitila – lamp

Together: The light from the lamp.

Daga can also mean from (a place) or since (a time) in other contexts, but here it is clearly from.

3. Why is it fitila and not fitilar in this sentence?

Fitila is the basic form meaning lamp. Fitilar is a definite/genitive form meaning roughly the lamp (of) or the lamp’s.

Hausa often leaves definiteness (the difference between a lamp and the lamp) to context rather than using a fixed word like English the.

daga fitila can be understood as from the lamp in natural English, even though there is no separate word for the.
fitilar would usually appear when the lamp is being possessed or linked to another noun, for example:
- hasken fitilar – the light of the lamp / the lamp’s light

In this sentence, daga fitila is a normal, natural way to say from the lamp.

4. What is the overall grammatical structure of the sentence?

Sentence: Haske daga fitila yana sa ɗakin karatu ya yi kyau.

Breakdown:

Haske daga fitila – subject
- haske – light
- daga fitila – from the lamp
yana sa – verb phrase (present/progressive)
- yana – he/it is (doing something); 3rd person masculine singular progressive marker
- sa – to put / to cause / to make
Together yana sa = is making / makes.
ɗakin karatu – object (the thing being affected)
- ɗaki – room
- -n – linker (genitive/possessive linker)
- karatu – reading / study
  → ɗakin karatu = reading room / study room / library (depending on context)
ya yi kyau – result clause / complement clause
- ya – he/it (subject marker)
- yi – do / make / be (in this idiom)
- kyau – beauty, goodness, niceness
  → ya yi kyau = it becomes/look nice/beautiful

So the whole sentence literally is:
Light from (the) lamp is making (the) study room it-do beauty.
Natural English: The light from the lamp makes the study room look nice.

5. Why do we need both yana and sa? Isn’t one kind of like is already?

They have different jobs:

yana is the progressive aspect marker for he/it (3rd person masculine singular), meaning is doing something.
sa is the main verb, and here it means to cause / to make something be in a state.

So:

sa alone is to cause / to put / to make.
yana sa is is causing / is making or just simple present makes in English.

Hausa often uses the progressive form (yana sa) where English would use a simple present (makes), especially for general or ongoing situations.

6. What exactly does ɗakin karatu mean, and how is it formed?

ɗakin karatu is a compound noun phrase:

ɗaki – room
-n – linker that joins nouns in a genitive/possessive or descriptive relationship
karatu – reading, study, learning

Literally: room of reading/study.

Common natural translations:

study room
reading room
library (especially a small or private one, depending on context)

The -n is very important; it shows that karatu is linked to ɗaki in a room-of-reading relationship.

7. Why is it ya yi kyau and not just kyau or something like ɗakin karatu yana kyau?

The verb sa (to cause/make) usually takes a clause as its complement, not just an adjective or noun.

After sa, Hausa uses a subjunctive-like form of the verb to express the resulting state. In this case:

ya – subject marker (he/it) referring back to ɗakin karatu
yi – do / be (in this idiom)
kyau – beauty, niceness

ya yi kyau behaves like (he/it) be(comes) beautiful/nice.

So:

yana sa ɗakin karatu ya yi kyau = it makes the study room (to) be nice / become nice.

You could say ɗakin karatu yana da kyau (the study room is nice) or ɗakin karatu yana kyau (the study room looks good) in other contexts, but once you use sa, you need this ya yi kyau-type clause as the result.

8. What does the ya in ya yi kyau refer to, and why is it ya and not yà/ta or something else?

Ya here is the 3rd person singular subject marker, referring back to ɗakin karatu:

ɗakin karatu is treated as masculine singular in Hausa grammar.
Therefore, the matching subject marker for it is ya.

So ya yi kyau literally means he/it did/made beauty, but idiomatically it became / is nice.

If the referent being described were grammatically feminine, you would use ta instead of ya (for example, motar nan ta yi kyau – this car is nice), but ɗaki is masculine, so ya is correct.

9. Why do we say ya yi kyau and not something like ya zama kyau?

In Hausa, kyau (beauty, niceness) normally goes with the verb yi in expressions of appearance or quality:

ya yi kyau – it looks good / it’s nice
rigar nan ta yi kyau – this dress is nice
gidan ya yi kyau – the house looks good

Using zama (to become) with kyau is not the usual, idiomatic combination. You might say:

ya zama mai kyau – it became good/nice (one)

But ya yi kyau is the standard, natural expression for is/looks nice or has turned out nice.

10. Could this sentence also be translated as The lamp light makes the library look beautiful? Is that still accurate?

Yes, that is a good, natural translation. Small notes:

Haske daga fitila – The light from the lamp; lamp light is a natural way to express that in English.
ɗakin karatu – can be study room, reading room, or library, depending on the context. Library is often a good choice.
ya yi kyau – can be look nice, look beautiful, look attractive, look good.

So The lamp light makes the library look beautiful is a perfectly reasonable translation, even if a bit more expressive than a very literal makes the study room look nice.