Learn Hardcore Hausa: A lambu akwai ganye kore da furanni masu shuɗi. - In the garden there are green leaves and flowers that are blue.

Hausa does not use a separate word like English “is/are” for existence in this kind of sentence; instead, akwai carries the whole idea of “there is/are”.

What does the preposition “a” mean, and how is it different from “ciki” or “a cikin”?

a is a very common preposition meaning roughly “in, at, on”, depending on context.

a lambu = “in the garden / at the garden”.

You might also see:

ciki = “inside (of)”
a cikin lambu = “inside the garden” (a bit more explicitly inside).

In many everyday sentences, a lambu and a cikin lambu can both be translated as “in the garden”, with a cikin slightly emphasizing “inside”.

Why is it “ganye kore” and not “kore ganye” like “green grass” in English?

In Hausa, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe:

ganye kore = grass green → “green grass”
furanni masu shuɗi = flowers that-are blue → “blue flowers”.

So the pattern is:

Noun + Adjective, not Adjective + Noun as in English.

What does “ganye” mean exactly? Is it “leaf” or “grass”?

ganye is a flexible word that can mean:

leaf/leaves (of a plant)
foliage
grass/green plants/greens (depending on context).

In many descriptions of yards or gardens, ganye kore is best understood as “green grass / green leafy plants”, rather than a single leaf.

Also note: Hausa often doesn’t mark plural on mass nouns like this, so ganye can be translated “leaf” or “leaves/grass” depending on context.

Why is it “kore” and not a plural form like “koraye” to match the grass/leaves?

Hausa color adjectives can have plural forms (e.g. koraye is a plural form of kore), but in ordinary descriptions, especially for mass nouns like ganye, speakers often just use the base form:

ganye kore = “green grass / green leaves” (natural, common)

If you said ganyen koraye (with clear plural marking), it would sound more like “green leaves” as individual items, and slightly more specific or formal. For describing a garden scene, ganye kore is idiomatic and normal.

What does “da” mean here between “ganye kore” and “furanni masu shuɗi”?

In this sentence, da means “and”:

ganye kore da furanni masu shuɗi
→ “green grass and blue flowers”.

da can also mean “with” in other contexts, but when it connects two nouns (X da Y), it is usually best translated as “and”.

What does “furanni” mean, and how is it related to “flower”?

fure = “flower” (singular)
furanni = “flowers” (plural).

The -nni ending is one of the plural patterns in Hausa. So:

furanni masu shuɗi = “flowers that are blue” / “blue flowers”.

Why do we say “furanni masu shuɗi” instead of just “furanni shuɗi”?

masu here is a relative/qualifying word that links a plural noun with a quality, often an adjective:

furanni masu shuɗi
literally: “flowers that have blue / that are blue”
→ naturally translated as “blue flowers”.

Without masu, furanni shuɗi can be understood, but sounds less natural/lower quality in many contexts. masu + [adjective] is a very common way in Hausa to say “X that is/are [adjective]”, especially for colors and other properties:

motoci masu ja – red cars (cars that are red)
mutane masu tsawo – tall people (people who are tall).

Does “masu shuɗi” always mean “blue”, and why doesn’t “shuɗi” change for plural?

shuɗi is the basic word for the color “blue”.
When you use masu with an adjective, the adjective commonly stays in its base form, even if the noun is plural:
- furanni masu shuɗi – blue flowers
- motoci masu ja – red cars
- riguna masu fari – white dresses.

So you do not need to pluralize shuɗi after masu; masu itself already shows that the head noun (furanni) is plural.

Is “lambu” “a garden” or “the garden”? There’s no “a/the” in the Hausa sentence.

Hausa generally does not have separate words for the English articles “a/an” and “the”.

lambu can mean “a garden” or “the garden” depending on context.

So:

A lambu akwai ganye kore…
could be translated as either:
- “In a garden there is green grass…” (if we’re talking about some garden in general), or
- “In the garden there is green grass…” (if a specific garden is already known in the conversation).

English must choose a/the; Hausa leaves it to context.

Is the word order “A lambu akwai…” fixed, or can we put “akwai” first?

You can change the order somewhat, but the normal, very natural pattern when talking about existence in a place is:

Location + akwai + thing
- A lambu akwai ganye kore da furanni masu shuɗi.

You can say:

Akwai ganye kore da furanni masu shuɗi a lambu.

This is also grammatical, but the focus slightly shifts to what exists (“There is green grass and blue flowers in the garden”), rather than emphasizing the location first. Both are acceptable; the version with “A lambu…” simply foregrounds the location.