Learn Hardcore Hausa: Haɗari yana zuwa ne idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi, sai dai wasu ba su fahimta ba. - Danger comes when children do not follow the rules in the street, however some do not understand.

Because the sentence is talking about children not following rules on the road, Haɗari here is clearly “danger / risk (of an accident)”, not weather.

Why do we have yana zuwa ne instead of just yana zuwa? What is the function of ne here?

Ne here is a focus / emphasis particle.

Haɗari yana zuwa.
→ “Danger is coming / comes.” (plain statement)
Haɗari yana zuwa ne…
→ Adds emphasis: “It is danger that comes…” or “Danger really comes…” in that situation.

In Hausa, ne / ce / ne (depending on gender/number) often:

Emphasise what comes before them.
Can correspond loosely to English “it is … that …” or to a stressed word.

So Haɗari yana zuwa ne idan… suggests:

“It is danger that comes when kids don’t follow the rules on the road…”

What is the role of idan in this sentence, and what tense does it usually go with?

Idan means roughly “when / if / whenever”.

In this sentence:

idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi
→ “when children do not follow the rules on the road”

About tense:

Idan + present / habitual often means “whenever / whenever it happens that …”
- Idan ya zo, zan tafi. – “When(ever) he comes, I’ll go.”
It can also be more conditional, like “if”:
- Idan ka yi haka, zan ji daɗi. – “If you do that, I’ll be happy.”

Here it’s more like:

“Whenever / when children don’t follow the rules on the road, danger comes.”

How does yara ba sa bin doka work grammatically? What is ba sa, and why is bin used instead of bi?

The structure breaks down like this:

yara = children
suna bin doka = “they are following / they follow the law/rules”
- su-na → suna = “they (are)” (progressive/habitual)
- bi = “to follow”
- bin = the verbal noun (masdar) of bi, used after na/ke/suna…
ba sa bin doka = negative of suna bin doka

Negation pattern for the progressive/habitual:

suna bin doka → ba sa bin doka
- The su part of suna is kept, but na changes to sa with ba:
  - suna → ba sa
So ba sa bin doka literally: “they are not-following the law.”

Therefore:

yara ba sa bin doka = “the children are not following / do not follow the rules.”

Why is it ba sa bin doka and not something like ba su bi doka? Are these different?

Yes, they are different structures and aspects:

ba sa bin doka
- Negative progressive / habitual.
- Based on suna bin doka (“they follow / are following the rules”).
- Focuses on ongoing / general habit.
- “They (generally) don’t follow the rules.”
ba su bi doka (possible in other contexts, but not parallel here)
- This would look like a negative perfective of bi with the subject su:
  - “they did not follow the rules” (in a specific instance), usually:
    - ba su bi doka ba
- Structure: ba + subject pronoun + verb (perfective) + ba.

In this sentence the speaker is talking about what generally happens (“When children don’t follow rules on the road…”), so the progressive/habitual form ba sa bin doka is the natural choice.

What does a titi mean exactly? Why is it a titi and not a kan titi?

A is a general locative preposition meaning “in / at / on”, and titi means “road, street”.

a titi → “on the road / in the street / at the roadside”, depending on context.

You may also hear:

a kan titi → literally “on top of the road”, also “in the middle of the road / on the road-surface”.

Differences are subtle and often stylistic:

a titi is very common and natural for “on the road / in the street” generally.
a kan titi can feel a bit more physically specific (e.g. actually on the roadway, not just near it), but they overlap a lot in everyday speech.

In this sentence, a titi is perfectly normal for “on the road”.

What does sai dai mean here, and how is it generally used in Hausa?

Sai dai is a conjunction meaning roughly “but / however / except that / only that”.

In this sentence:

…, sai dai wasu ba su fahimta ba.
→ “…, but some don’t understand.”

Common uses of sai dai:

Contrast / limitation (like “but / however”)
- Ina son zuwa, sai dai ban da lokaci.
  → “I’d like to go, but I don’t have time.”
Exception / “except that”
- Komai yana da kyau, sai dai farashin ya yi tsada.
  → “Everything is good, except that the price is expensive.”

So here, sai dai introduces a contrast: yes, danger comes when kids break the rules, but some people (children, drivers, etc.) still don’t understand this.

Who does wasu refer to in sai dai wasu ba su fahimta ba? Why isn’t there a noun after it?

Wasu literally means “some (people/things)”. It can be:

A determiner:
- wasu mutane – some people
- wasu yara – some children
Or a stand‑alone pronoun:
- Wasu sun zo. – “Some (people) came.”

In sai dai wasu ba su fahimta ba, wasu is used by itself, and the noun is understood from context (most likely “some (children)” or “some people”).

So it effectively means:

“but some [of them] don’t understand.”

Hausa often omits the noun after wasu when context makes it obvious.

Can you break down the grammar of ba su fahimta ba? Why is ba repeated?

Yes. Ba su fahimta ba is a typical Hausa clause‑level negation pattern.

Breakdown:

su = “they”
fahimta here = “understand” (perfective verb form)
ba … ba = negative frame around the clause

Structure:

ba + subject pronoun + verb (+ object) + ba

So:

su fahimta – “they understood / they understand” (perfective, depending on context)
ba su fahimta ba – “they do not understand / they did not understand.”

The two ba’s:

The first ba starts the negation.
The final ba closes it; it’s often obligatory in full clauses, especially in careful or standard speech.

So wasu ba su fahimta ba = “some (of them) don’t understand.”

Is fahimta a verb or a noun here? What is the difference between fahimta and fahimci?

Fahimta can function as both:

As a perfective verb (what you see in this sentence):
- Na fahimta. – “I understood / I understand (now).”
- Ba su fahimta ba. – “They don’t / didn’t understand.”
As a noun meaning “understanding”:
- ya na da fahimta – “he has understanding / he is intelligent.”

Fahimci is another related form:

Often used as a verb meaning “to understand / to figure out” in some patterns.
You may hear forms like ya fahimci batun – “he understood the matter.”

In this sentence, ba su fahimta ba is best analysed as a verbal use (“they don’t understand”), not as “they don’t have understanding”, even though the root meaning overlaps.

Could we change the word order to put the idan‑clause first, like in English: “When children don’t follow the rules on the road, danger comes”?

Yes, that is possible and natural in Hausa.

You could say, for example:

Idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi, haɗari yana zuwa.

If you want to keep the same emphasis with ne, one option is:

Idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi, haɗari ne yake zuwa.

Both structures are acceptable. Hausa word order is quite flexible with conditional/temporal clauses: idan‑clause can go either before or after the main clause, just as in English. The version given in your sentence simply places the result first: “Danger comes when …”.

Why isn’t there a plural marker on doka (like dokoki)? How do we know it means “rules” and not just one rule?

In Hausa, a singular abstract noun can often be understood in a generic / collective sense.

doka = “law / rule” (singular)
dokoki = “laws / rules” (plural)

But in expressions like:

bin doka – “obeying the law / obeying rules”
kin bin doka – “failure to obey the law / rules”

doka is usually understood collectively, not as “one specific rule”.

In your sentence, bin doka a titi naturally means “obeying the traffic rules / obeying the rules on the road”, even though the form is singular. The context and common usage tell us it’s generic.