Learn Hardcore Hausa: Yara suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi da dare. - The children are playing under the streetlight at night.

yara suna wasa ≈ “the children are playing / the children play (now / habitually)”
If you said just yara wasa, it would sound incomplete or ungrammatical; Hausa normally needs a verb form or an aspect marker between the subject and the action noun.

So:

yara suna wasa – correct
yara wasa – not a normal Hausa clause.

Is wasa here a verb or a noun, and could I also say suna yin wasa?

In Hausa, many action words are nouns that function in verb-like expressions. Wasa literally means “play” (as a noun), but with suna it works like an English verb:

yara suna wasa – “the children are playing”

You can also say:

yara suna yin wasa

Here yin comes from the verb yi (to do), so it literally means “they are doing play.” Both suna wasa and suna yin wasa are correct; suna wasa is a bit shorter and more colloquial.

Why do we have both a and ƙarƙashin in a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi? Don’t they both mean something like “under”?

ƙarƙashin is a postposition meaning “under / underneath (something).”
a is a general preposition meaning “in, at, on,” used to mark location.

ƙarƙashin fitilar titi – “the underside of the street light”
a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi – “at under the street light” → idiomatically, “under the street light.”

In practice:

a ƙarƙashin … is the very common, natural way to say “under …”
You may also see ƙarƙashin fitilar titi without a, but a ƙarƙashin sounds more complete as a locative phrase in sentences like this.

How is ƙarƙashin formed, and why does it end with -n?

Base word: ƙarƙashi = “underside / lower part.”

When it links to another noun, it takes the genitive linker -n / -r:

ƙarƙashi + -n → ƙarƙashin = “the underside of … / under …”

So:

a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi = “at the underside of the street light of the street” → “under the street light.”
The -n is required to connect ƙarƙashi to the following noun phrase (fitilar titi).

Why is it fitilar titi and not just fitila titi?

This is the Hausa genitive (linking) construction.

fitila = lamp / light
titi = street, road

To say “lamp of the street” (street lamp), Hausa puts the head noun first (fitila) and then attaches a linker -r / -n to it if needed:

fitila + -r → fitilar
fitilar titi = “lamp of (the) street” → “streetlight / street lamp”

So fitilar is fitila plus the linking -r required before another noun (titi).

How does possession or “of” constructions generally work in Hausa, as in fitilar titi?

Pattern: HEAD + linker (-n / -r) + POSSESSOR

fitilar titi
- fitila (head noun: lamp)
- -r (linker)
- titi (possessor: street)
  → “the street’s lamp / street light”

Other examples:

motar Malam – “Malam’s car” (mota + -r + Malam)
gidan iyaye – “the parents’ house” (gida + -n + iyaye)

So in fitilar titi, fitilar must take -r because it’s followed by another noun that defines it.

Does fitilar titi mean one specific streetlight (“the streetlight”) or any streetlight in general?

Hausa does not use a separate word for “the” vs “a.” Definiteness is understood from context.

fitilar titi can mean:
- “the streetlight” (if a specific one is understood)
- “a streetlight / streetlights” in a generic description

In this sentence, it’s best read as “(the) streetlight” in the place where the children are playing, but grammatically it could also be generic.

What does da mean in da dare, and why is it used for time?

Da is a very flexible word in Hausa. Core meanings:

“and”
“with”
In time expressions: “at / in (a certain time period).”

So:

dare = night
da dare ≈ “at night / in the night”

Other time examples:

da safe – in the morning
da rana – in the daytime
da yamma – in the evening

Where can da dare go in the sentence? Is Yara suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi da dare the only correct order?

Da dare is a time phrase, and Hausa is fairly flexible with its position. These are all acceptable, with slight emphasis differences:

Yara suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi da dare.
– neutral; time comes last.
Da dare, yara suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi.
– emphasizes the time (“At night, the children play under the streetlight.”)
Yara da dare suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi.
– also possible, though putting da dare at the very end (as in the original) is often the smoothest.

So the original word order is natural, but not the only one.

What is the difference between dare and daddare?

Both relate to night, but:

dare – night (the general period of darkness)
daddare – at night-time / in the night (often used more explicitly as an adverbial expression)

In many contexts, da dare and daddare overlap:

Yara suna wasa da dare.
Yara suna wasa daddare.

Both can mean “The children play at night,” although da dare is the structure exactly used in your sentence.

Why is it yara suna (they are) instead of something like yara yana or yara na?

Agreement in Hausa is important:

yaro yana wasa – “the boy is playing”
- yaro (singular) → yà-na (3rd person singular, masculine)
yara suna wasa – “the children are playing”
- yara (plural) → sù-na (3rd person plural)

So:

yaro → yàna
yara → sùna

Yara yana would mismatch plural subject with singular verb form and sound wrong.
yara na is missing the su- (they) part and is not the normal present-progressive form.

Is yara a regular plural? How does it relate to yaro?

No, it’s an irregular plural.

yaro – child (boy; in many contexts “child” in general)
yara – children

Hausa has many non‑regular plurals (often called “broken plurals,” similar to Arabic). You have to learn pairs like:

yaro → yara – child → children
mutum → mutane – person → people

So in this sentence, yara clearly marks that we’re talking about more than one child.

Could the sentence work without a, like Yara suna wasa ƙarƙashin fitilar titi da dare?

You might hear or see it without a, and people would still understand it, but:

a ƙarƙashin … is the more standard and idiomatic locative phrase meaning “under …”
Omitting a makes ƙarƙashin fitilar titi behave more like a bare postpositional phrase without the clear locative marker.

For learners, it is better (and more natural) to keep a:

Yara suna wasa a ƙarƙashin fitilar titi da dare. ✅