Learn Hardcore Hausa: Gajiya tana ƙaruwa saboda yawan aiki. - Tiredness increases because of a lot of work.

Na gaji. – I am tired / I got tired. (verb gaji)
Ina jin gajiya. – I feel tired / I feel fatigue. (noun gajiya)
Gajiya tana ƙaruwa. – The fatigue is increasing. (gajiya as a thing that can increase)

So in your sentence, gajiya is “the tiredness / fatigue” (often understood as my or our tiredness from context).

Why do we use tana here instead of yana?

Hausa has grammatical gender for many nouns: masculine and feminine.
The verb form has to agree with the gender of the subject.

Yana = he is / it is (masculine) doing...
Tana = she is / it is (feminine) doing...

The noun gajiya is grammatically feminine, so you must use the feminine subject pronoun:

Gajiya tana ƙaruwa. – Fatigue is increasing.

If the subject were a masculine noun, you would use yana instead:

Zafi yana ƙaruwa. – The heat is increasing.

What exactly is tana doing in this sentence?

Tana is the 3rd person feminine pronoun + progressive marker:

ta = she / it (feminine)
na = marker used for an ongoing, continuous, or habitual action
ta + na → tana

So:

Gajiya tana ƙaruwa.
Literally: Fatigue – she is increasing.

Functionally, tana marks that the action ƙaruwa (increasing) is in progress / happening over time, not just a one-time completed event.

Is ƙaruwa a verb or a noun, and how is it formed?

Ƙaruwa is a verbal noun (also called a masdar or -wa form), formed from the verb ƙaru.

ƙaru (verb) = to increase, to grow (in quantity/amount)
ƙaruwa (verbal noun) = increase, growth, the act of increasing

Hausa often uses pronoun + na + verbal noun for progressive meaning:

Ina tafiya. – I am going. (táfiya = going, travel)
Yana karatu. – He is reading / studying. (karátu = reading/studying)
Gajiya tana ƙaruwa. – Fatigue is increasing. (ƙaruwa = increase)

So ƙaruwa is not a simple adjective; it’s the noun form of the action “increase” that combines with tana to give a progressive meaning.

What is the difference between Gajiya tana ƙaruwa and Gajiya ta ƙaru?

They differ mainly in aspect (ongoing vs completed):

Gajiya tana ƙaruwa.
– Fatigue is increasing / keeps increasing.
Ongoing, gradual, or habitual process.
Gajiya ta ƙaru.
– The fatigue has increased / the fatigue increased.
More like a completed change: the level is now higher than before.

So if you want to stress a continuing build‑up (e.g. over the day or over weeks), tana ƙaruwa is appropriate. If you want to say that at some point it rose (and that’s the result now), ta ƙaru fits better.

What does saboda mean, and how is it used here?

Saboda means because, because of, due to.

It can be used:

Before a noun phrase:
- Saboda sanyi, na saka riga. – Because of the cold, I wore a shirt.
- Saboda yawan aiki, gajiya tana ƙaruwa. – Because of the amount of work, fatigue is increasing.
Before a clause:
- Na dawo da wuri saboda ina gajiya. – I came back early because I’m tired.

In your sentence, saboda yawan aiki is a reason phrase:
“because of the amount of work”.

What does yawan aiki literally mean?

Breakdown:

yawa = a lot, much, many, abundance
-n = genitive/possessive linker (of)
aiki = work

So yawan aiki literally means:

“the muchness of work / the amount of work”

Functionally, it means:

“a lot of work, heavy workload, the large amount of work”

So the full sentence is:
Gajiya tana ƙaruwa saboda yawan aiki. – Fatigue is increasing because of the large amount of work.

How is yawan formed from yawa, and when do we use this pattern?

Yawan is yawa + -n (the genitive linker).

In Hausa, when one noun describes or “possesses” another, you link them with -n / -r / -ar, depending on gender and final sounds. Here:

yawa
- -n
  - aiki → yawan aiki
    abundance of work / amount of work

Other examples:

yawan mutane – the number/amount of people
yawan kuɗi – a lot of money / the quantity of money
yawan ruwa – a lot of water / the amount of water

So yawan X usually means “the amount/number of X” or “a lot of X” in a more noun‑like way.

If it already means “a lot of work,” how would I say “too much work” in Hausa?

Yawan aiki by itself is neutral: “a lot / a large amount of work.”
To clearly express “too much work”, you usually add something showing excess, like sosai (very, a lot) or jiq (too much, overloaded – in some dialects).

Common options:

Saboda yawan aikin da nake yi, gajiya tana ƙaruwa sosai.
Because of the amount of work I’m doing, my fatigue is really increasing.
Saboda aikin da yawa, gajiya tana ƙaruwa.
Because of too much work, fatigue is increasing.
Saboda aiki da yawa nake yi, gajiya tana ƙaruwa.
Because I’m doing too much work, fatigue is increasing.

So yawan aiki can suggest “too much work” from context, but if you want to be explicit in speech, you reinforce it with da yawa, sosai, etc.

Can I change the word order, for example: Saboda yawan aiki, gajiya tana ƙaruwa?

Yes. Both are natural:

Gajiya tana ƙaruwa saboda yawan aiki.
Saboda yawan aiki, gajiya tana ƙaruwa.

Hausa allows the reason phrase (saboda…) at the beginning or after the main clause. Putting saboda yawan aiki first makes the cause more prominent, but the meaning is the same.

Why is there no word for “the” or “my” before gajiya? How do we know whose tiredness it is?

Hausa generally does not use articles like the / a, and it often omits possessive pronouns when they’re obvious from context.

gajiya can be understood as:
- the tiredness
- my tiredness
- our tiredness depending on the situation and who is speaking.

If you want to be explicit, you can specify:

Gajiyata tana ƙaruwa. – My tiredness is increasing.
Gajiyarsu tana ƙaruwa. – Their tiredness is increasing.

But in normal conversation, Gajiya tana ƙaruwa is usually understood as I’m getting more and more tired (if you’re talking about yourself) or we’re getting more and more tired (if spoken by a group member).

How would I say “I’m getting more and more tired because of the work” more directly about myself?

You can make the subject explicitly “I” in a few natural ways. For example:

Using my fatigue:
- Gajiyata tana ƙaruwa saboda yawan aiki.
  My tiredness is increasing because of the amount of work.
Using I feel tired:
- Saboda yawan aiki nake jin gajiya sosai.
  Because of the amount of work, I feel very tired.
Still somewhat general, but often understood as “I”:
- Gajiya tana ƙaruwa saboda aikin da nake yi.
  Fatigue is increasing because of the work that I’m doing.

All of these are natural; which you choose depends on how personal and explicit you want to be about “I”.

How should I pronounce the ƙ in ƙaruwa? Is it the same as k?

The Hausa letter ƙ is not the same as plain k.

k – an ordinary k sound, like in English “kill.”
ƙ – a glottalized / ejective k; it’s produced with a tighter, more explosive release, a bit further back in the mouth.

For many learners, it’s enough at first to remember:

ƙ = “strong k” (try to make it a bit sharper/harder than k)

Minimal pairs (for listening practice):

kasa – ground, earth
ƙasa – country, nation

In ƙaruwa, try to give that initial k an extra “pop” to get close to the Hausa ƙ.