Learn Hardcore Hausa: Malama tana yaba wa dalibai masu ƙoƙari a ƙarshen wata. - The female teacher praises the hardworking students at the end of the month.

In Hausa, the verb yaba (to praise, appreciate, commend) generally takes a preposition when you mention the person who receives the praise.

yaba wa wani / wa dalibi / wa dalibai
= to praise someone / a student / students

So in your sentence:

yaba wa dalibai
literally: praise *to the students
idiomatically: *praises the students

Compare:

Na yaba maka. – I appreciate you / what you did.
(ma-ka = to-you)

If you drop wa:

yaba dalibai sounds incomplete or off in standard Hausa; the usual pattern is yaba wa + person.

Also note another common pattern with yaba:

yaba da ra’ayi – to agree with / approve of an opinion
Here it uses da instead of wa, because now it’s about agreeing with something rather than praising someone.

Is yaba wa one unit like a phrasal verb, or two separate words?

It is best thought of as:

yaba = main verb (praise, appreciate, commend)
wa = preposition (to / for), marking the indirect object (the person praised)

They are written as two words, and wa can in principle be used with other verbs as well:

bayar wa dalibai – to give to the students
gaya wa su – to tell them

But in practice, with yaba, the pattern yaba wa [person] is very common and feels almost like a fixed frame:

yaba wa malamai – praise the teachers
yaba wa iyaye – praise the parents

What is the difference between dalibi and dalibai?

They are singular vs. plural:

dalibi – a (male) student
daliba – a (female) student
dalibai – students (plural, mixed or generic)

In your sentence:

dalibai = students (plural, gender not specified)

So:

dalibi mai ƙoƙari – a hardworking male student
daliba mai ƙoƙari – a hardworking female student
dalibai masu ƙoƙari – hardworking students (plural)

What does masu ƙoƙari literally mean, and how does it work grammatically?

Literally:

ƙoƙari = effort, hard work, trying
masu (before a noun like this) roughly = those who have / people who possess / people characterized by

So:

masu ƙoƙari ≈ those who have effort → people who put in effort → hardworking (ones)

Grammatically, masu + noun / verbal noun is used after a plural noun to describe it:

mutane masu kuɗi – people who have money → rich people
dalibai masu ladabi – students who have good manners
dalibai masu ƙoƙari – students who are hardworking

In your sentence, dalibai masu ƙoƙari functions like an English noun + descriptive phrase:

students who are hardworking
hardworking students

Why do we use masu ƙoƙari and not mai ƙoƙari here?

Mai and masu are related:

mai – used with singular nouns
masu – used with plural nouns

Both basically mean something like “one(s) who have / possess / are characterized by …”.

Examples:

dalibi mai ƙoƙari – a hardworking (male) student
daliba mai ƙoƙari – a hardworking (female) student
malami mai ilimi – a knowledgeable teacher

But:

dalibai masu ƙoƙari – hardworking students
malamai masu ilimi – knowledgeable teachers

So in your sentence, dalibai is plural, so the correct form is masu ƙoƙari, not mai ƙoƙari.

Could we say something like dalibai waɗanda suke yin ƙoƙari instead of dalibai masu ƙoƙari?

Yes, that is possible, but it feels heavier / more explicit:

dalibai masu ƙoƙari
– very natural, compact: hardworking students
dalibai waɗanda suke yin ƙoƙari
– literally: students who are making effort
– grammatically fine, but longer, and often used if you want to stress the ongoing action or be very explicit.

In many everyday contexts, masu ƙoƙari is the more idiomatic and concise way to say hardworking for a plural noun.

Rough rule of thumb:

mai/masu + noun – compact descriptive phrase (having X, characterized by X)
wanda/waɗanda suke yin X – full relative clause (who are doing X)

Why is a used before ƙarshen wata? What does a do here?

a is a very common preposition in Hausa, often translated as “in / at / on” depending on context.

With time expressions, a is frequently used to mean “at / in”:

a safe – in the morning
a daren jiya – last night
a ƙarshen mako – at the end of the week
a watan Janairu – in the month of January

So:

a ƙarshen wata
= at the end of (the) month

In your sentence, a is introducing the time when the praising happens.

What exactly is ƙarshen? How is it formed, and what does it mean?

The base noun is:

ƙarshe – end, finish

When it is used in a possessive-like construction (X of Y), it usually takes the linking/genitive form, which here is ƙarshen:

ƙarshen watan – the end of the month
ƙarshen shekara – the end of the year
ƙarshen rana – the end of the day

So in:

a ƙarshen wata

you have:

a – at
ƙarshen – the end (of)
wata – month

Together: at the end of the month.

Why is it wata and not something like watan nan or watan? Does it mean “each month” or “one particular month”?

Hausa does not use definite/indefinite articles like “the / a”, so wata by itself can be interpreted as “a month” or “the month”, depending on context.

In a ƙarshen wata with a habitual verb (tana), the natural reading is:

at the end of the month in a repeated, general sense
→ effectively: at the end of each month / every month

If you wanted to be very explicit about every month, you could say:

a ƙarshen kowane wata – at the end of every month

If you wanted to point to a specific known month (e.g. this month), you could say:

a ƙarshen watan nan – at the end of this month

But in ordinary usage with tana and no other context, a ƙarshen wata is understood as a regular monthly habit.

Can I change the order and say masu ƙoƙari dalibai instead of dalibai masu ƙoƙari?

No, not in standard Hausa. The normal word order is:

Head noun + descriptive element

So:

dalibai masu ƙoƙari – students who are hardworking
mutane masu kuɗi – people who have money
malamai masu ilimi – teachers who have knowledge

Putting masu ƙoƙari before dalibai:

masu ƙoƙari dalibai

would sound wrong or at least unnatural. The descriptive phrase follows the noun it describes.

Does Malama here mean “a teacher” or “the teacher”? And does it imply anything about gender or respect?

Malama is:

the feminine form of malami (teacher)
commonly used for a female teacher, both as a noun and as a form of address / title

Hausa doesn’t have “a / the”, so Malama can be translated as either “a (female) teacher” or “the (female) teacher”, depending on context.

In many real-life situations, Malama (often capitalized in writing) is used like a title or respectful address, similar to:

Madam Teacher / Miss / Ma’am (Teacher)

In your sentence, without further context, you can reasonably translate it as:

The (female) teacher praises the hardworking students at the end of the month.