Learn Hardcore Hausa: Aji ɗinmu yana da matsala ɗaya, dalibai ba sa zuwa da wuri. - Our class has one problem: students do not come early.

In this sentence, because we then talk about dalibai (students) and their behavior, it is most natural to understand aji ɗinmu as “our class (group of students)”, not just the physical room. But grammatically it can cover both ideas; context decides.

Why do we have ɗinmu after aji? What does ɗinmu mean?

ɗinmu is made up of:

ɗin – a linker / definite marker (similar to “the” or “of the” in English, depending on context)
mu – the pronoun “we / our”

So aji ɗinmu literally has the structure:

aji ɗin mu → “the class of us / our class”

This ɗin is very common between a noun and a following modifier or possessor. It often marks that the noun is definite and links it to what comes after.

In many texts you might also see this written as ajinmu instead of aji ɗinmu. Both are understood; writing it as aji ɗinmu just shows the parts more clearly.

Why is it yana da to say “has”? How does that work?

In Hausa, possession is often expressed with “to be with” rather than a separate verb “to have”.

The pattern is:

subject + (ya/ta/yana/tana…) + da + thing possessed

In this sentence:

Aji ɗinmu yana da matsala ɗaya
= “Our class is with one problem”
≈ “Our class has one problem.”

Details:

yana – “he/it is (doing/being)” for masculine nouns
da – “with”

Since aji is treated as masculine, we use yana, not tana.

Why is it matsala ɗaya (problem one) instead of “ɗaya matsala”?

In Hausa, cardinal numbers normally come after the noun they count.

So:

matsala ɗaya – “one problem”
matsaloli biyu – “two problems”
littafi uku – “three books”

Putting ɗaya after matsala is therefore the regular, correct order.

If you wanted to emphasize “only one problem”, you might hear matsala guda ɗaya (literally “problem one unit”), but matsala ɗaya is the normal, straightforward “one problem”.

Could I drop ɗaya and just say Aji ɗinmu yana da matsala?

Yes, you can say:

Aji ɗinmu yana da matsala. – “Our class has a problem.”

Without ɗaya, it just means “a problem / some problem” and does not focus on the number.

With ɗaya, it clearly tells you the class has one particular problem, preparing you for an explanation (which is what comes in the second clause).

Why is it just dalibai without any word for “the” (as in “the students”)?

Hausa does not have a separate word like English “the”.

Definiteness is usually shown by:

context,
possessive markers,
or the linker -n / -r / ɗin, etc.

In dalibai ba sa zuwa da wuri, the meaning is understood from context: in a discussion of our class, dalibai naturally refers to the students (of that class), not just students in general.

If you wanted to be more specific, you could say:

Dalibanmu ba sa zuwa da wuri. – “Our students don’t come early.”

Here dalibanmu = dalibai + -n (linker/definite) + mu (our).

How does ba sa zuwa work? Why sa?

The positive, habitual/continuous form for “they come” is:

Dalibai suna zuwa. – “The students (usually) come / are coming.”

The negative pattern changes:

suna zuwa → ba sa zuwa – “they don’t come / they are not coming”

So:

ba … sa … is the 3rd person plural negative counterpart of suna … in this tense/aspect.

Rough breakdown:

ba … – introduces negation
sa – the negative form corresponding to suna (“they are / they do”)
zuwa – verbal noun “coming”

So dalibai ba sa zuwa ≈ “the students do not (habitually) come.”

I thought negative sentences in Hausa use ba … ba. Why is there no final ba here?

The full “frame” for many negative sentences is indeed ba … ba, for example:

Bai tafi ba. – “He did not go.”
Ba sa zuwa da wuri ba. – “They don’t come early.”

However, in everyday speech and a lot of writing, the second ba is often dropped, especially with the continuous/habitual forms like ba sa zuwa.

So both of these are acceptable in many contexts:

Dalibai ba sa zuwa da wuri.
Dalibai ba sa zuwa da wuri ba.

The version without the final ba is very common and natural.

What is zuwa exactly? Why not just a finite verb?

Zuwo / zuwa is the verbal noun (masdar) of the verb zo – “to come”.

In patterns like:

suna zuwa
ba sa zuwa

Hausa uses an auxiliary-like element (suna / ba sa) + verbal noun.

So:

suna zuwa – “they are coming / they (usually) come”
ba sa zuwa – “they are not coming / they don’t (usually) come”

English uses a finite verb (“come”) here, but Hausa commonly uses this auxiliary + verbal noun structure.

What does da wuri mean literally, and can it also mean “quickly”?

Literally:

da – “with / at / in” (very general preposition)
wuri – “place, space; time/occasion” (by extension)

The phrase da wuri is an idiomatic expression meaning:

“early, on time, in good time”

In many contexts it is best translated simply as “early”:

sun tashi da wuri – “they woke up early”

It does not normally mean “quickly” in the sense of “fast speed”. For “quickly”, you would rather use words like da sauri (“with speed”), cikin gaggawa, etc.

Could I say Dalibanmu ba sa zuwa da wuri instead of dalibai ba sa zuwa da wuri? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say:

Dalibanmu ba sa zuwa da wuri. – “Our students don’t come early.”

Differences:

dalibai – “students” (here understood from context to be the ones in our class)
dalibanmu – literally “the students of us / our students”

So dalibanmu is explicitly possessive and definite.
In the original sentence, Aji ɗinmu already sets the context; then dalibai is used more generally for “(the) students”. Both ways are natural, but dalibanmu is a bit more explicitly “our students”.