Learn Hardcore Hausa: A damina, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje saboda ruwan sama. - In the rainy season, children do not play outside much because of the rain.

The preposition a means “in / at / on”. So A damina is literally “in rainy-season”, which we naturally translate into English as “In the rainy season / During the rainy season”.

Hausa does not have a separate word that works exactly like the English article “the”. Definite vs. indefinite meaning is usually understood from context. So damina can correspond to “a rainy season” or “the rainy season” depending on the situation; here context makes it “the rainy season.”

Why is there a comma after A damina? Could I move this time phrase to another position?

The comma reflects normal English punctuation, but in Hausa it simply shows that A damina (“in the rainy season”) is a fronted time expression.

Hausa often puts time expressions at the beginning of the sentence:

A damina, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje…
In the rainy season, children don’t play outside much…

You can also put the time expression after the subject (still correct):

Yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje a damina.

Both orders are acceptable; fronting A damina just emphasizes the time frame (“As for the rainy season…”). The core grammar of the sentence doesn’t change. Hausa writing may or may not show the comma; that’s more an orthographic/English influence than a grammatical requirement.

What does yara mean, and is it definite like “the children” or indefinite like “children”?

Yara means “children” in general. It is the plural of yaro (“child / boy”).

Hausa doesn’t have a separate word for “the”, so yara by itself can mean:

“children”, or
“the children”

depending on context. In this sentence, because we’re talking about children in general during the rainy season, yara is best translated as “children” in a generic sense: “children don’t play outside much…”

How does ba sa work? Where is the equivalent of English “do not / don’t” in this sentence?

Ba sa is the negative present/habitual form for third person plural (“they”).

Breakdown:

ba – main negative particle
sa – a subject pronoun form corresponding to “they” in negative present/habitual constructions

Together, ba sa ≈ “they don’t / they are not (doing)” before a verb or activity:

Yara ba sa yawan wasa…
The children don’t play much… / The children are not playing much…

So Hausa does not need a separate word like “do”. The combination ba + pronoun already expresses “do/are” + not in this tense/aspect.

What would be the affirmative (non‑negative) version of yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje?

The affirmative present/habitual form uses a different pronoun set:

suna = “they (are)” in the present/habitual

So:

Yara suna yawan wasa a waje.
Children often play / play a lot outside.

Compare:

Yara suna yawan wasa a waje. – They play a lot.
Yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje. – They don’t play a lot / they don’t usually play (outside).

This contrast helps you remember:

suna → affirmative present/habitual (they do / are doing)
ba sa → negative present/habitual (they don’t / are not doing)

I learned that Hausa negatives often have ba … ba (negative at both ends). Here we only see ba sa … without a final ba. Is that allowed?

Yes, it’s allowed and it’s very common in everyday Hausa.

In “textbook” descriptions you often see:

Ba su zuwa makaranta ba. – They don’t go to school.

Here ba appears at the beginning and the end. In natural speech, especially with present/habitual meaning, Hausa speakers frequently drop the final ba, especially when the sentence isn’t being strongly emphasized.

So both are acceptable:

Yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
Yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje ba.

The version without the final ba is perfectly normal and sounds less heavy or emphatic.

What does yawan add to the meaning? How is ba sa yawan wasa different from ba sa wasa?

The word yawa means “much, many, a lot (of)”.

When it’s followed by another noun, it usually appears as yawan:

yawan mutane – a lot of people
yawan aiki – a lot of work
yawan wasa – a lot of play(ing)

So:

ba sa wasa – they don’t play (neutral: simply do not play)
ba sa yawan wasa – they don’t play much / they don’t play very often

In this sentence, yawan softens the negation: it’s not that they never play, but that they don’t play a lot / don’t play as much.

Is wasa a verb or a noun here? Why don’t we see a separate verb like yi (= “do”)?

Wasa is originally a noun meaning “play, game, playing, entertainment.”

Hausa often expresses activities using a kind of light verb + verbal noun structure, especially with yi (“do”):

yi wasa – to play (lit. “do play”)

But in many common constructions, the verbal noun alone is used as the activity, especially with the present/habitual pronouns:

Yara suna wasa. – The children are playing.
Yara ba sa wasa. – The children are not playing.

So in ba sa yawan wasa, wasa still behaves like an activity noun, but the whole phrase functions like a verb phrase in English. You could think of it loosely as “(they) are not in much playing”.

What exactly does a waje mean, and is there a difference between a waje and a wajen gida?

The preposition a means “in / at / on.”
Waje means “outside, outside area, place, space (usually outside the immediate inside area).”

So:

a waje – outside (in general)
a wajen gida – outside the house (lit. “at the outside of the house”)

In this sentence:

…wasa a waje…
= play outside (not specifying exactly where, just not indoors).

If you needed to be more specific, you could add more detail:

…wasa a wajen makaranta. – play outside the school.

What does saboda mean, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Saboda means “because, because of, due to.”

With a noun after it, it’s like “because of … / due to …”:

saboda ruwan sama – because of the rain

With a clause after it, it works more like “because …”:

Saboda ana ruwan sama, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
Because it is raining, children don’t play outside much.

Position-wise, you can put the reason at the end (as in the original sentence) or at the beginning:

A damina, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje saboda ruwan sama.
Saboda ruwan sama, a damina yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.

Both are acceptable; moving saboda ruwan sama to the front emphasizes the cause first.

What does ruwan sama literally mean, and how is it formed from ruwa and sama?

ruwa – water (and by extension, “rain” in some contexts)
sama – sky, heaven, above

When you link two nouns in Hausa, you usually add a linking consonant -n / -r / -n to the first noun:

ruwa + -n + sama → ruwan sama – water-of sky

Literally, ruwan sama is “water of the sky”, and this is the common idiomatic way to say “rain”.

So:

saboda ruwa – because of water (could be any water)
saboda ruwan sama – because of the rain (specifically, rain from the sky)

Could I just say saboda ruwa instead of saboda ruwan sama, or would that change the meaning?

You can say saboda ruwa, and in context it will often still be understood as “because of the rain”, especially if everyone knows you’re talking about weather.

However:

saboda ruwa – literally “because of water” (ambiguous: water on the ground, in a river, a flood, spilled water, etc.)
saboda ruwan sama – clearly “because of the rain” (water that comes from the sky)

In a sentence like this, where the topic is seasonal weather and children playing outside, saboda ruwan sama is more precise and natural.

If I want to say “because it is raining” instead of “because of the rain”, how could I express that in Hausa?

You’d move from a noun phrase reason to a clause reason.

Some natural options:

Saboda ana ruwan sama, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
– literally: Because rain is being done / Because it is raining from the sky, children don’t play outside much.
Saboda ana ruwa, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
– literally: Because it is raining (lit. “because there is rain”), children don’t play outside much.
Saboda ruwan sama yana sauka, yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
– Because the rain is falling, children don’t play outside much.

The original saboda ruwan sama (“because of the rain”) is slightly more compact and very natural in this context.

Does yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje mean “they are not playing outside right now” or “they don’t usually play outside”?

The Hausa construction with ba sa + (verbal noun) generally expresses present/habitual meaning. In isolation, it is closer to a general or habitual statement:

Yara ba sa yawan wasa a waje.
→ Children don’t play outside much (in general / usually).

Context can push it toward a specific present-time meaning (“right now”), but with A damina (in the rainy season) and yawan (“much, often”), the most natural reading is habitual:

During the rainy season, children don’t play outside very much / very often because of the rain.