Breakdown of A hoto na ƙasa, malami ya nuna mana arewa, kudu da gabas a kan allo.
Questions & Answers about A hoto na ƙasa, malami ya nuna mana arewa, kudu da gabas a kan allo.
a is a very common Hausa preposition that usually means “in / at / on”, depending on context.
So A hoto na ƙasa literally means something like:
- a = in / on / at
- hoto = picture / image
- na ƙasa = of the land / of the country / of the ground
So the whole phrase is “On a picture/map of the land/country” or “In the picture of the land”.
Hausa normally puts this preposition before the noun phrase it refers to, just like English uses in / on / at before its noun:
- a gida – at home
- a kasuwa – at the market
- a hoto – in/on a picture
Literally, hoto na ƙasa is:
- hoto – picture, image, photo, drawing
- na ƙasa – of the land / of the country / of the ground
So very literally: “a picture of the land / country”.
Depending on the broader context, it can be understood as:
- a map (a picture of a country or region)
- a diagram or illustration of the land
- or just any picture that shows the land with directions marked
In everyday school-type contexts, if the teacher is showing directions (north, south, east) on a diagram, hoto na ƙasa can function pretty much like a map / picture of the country.
(Note: the most standard Hausa word for “map” is taswira or taswirar ƙasa, but context often lets hoto na ƙasa serve the same role.)
ƙasa is a flexible word, and the exact meaning depends on context. It can mean:
- ground / floor / land – on the ground
- country / nation – e.g. ƙasarsu “their country”
- earth / soil – the physical earth/soil
In hoto na ƙasa, the meaning is something like “land / country” – i.e. the surface of the land or a country shown in a picture or map.
So you could reasonably understand it here as:
- a picture of the land
- a picture of the country
All are close enough in this sentence.
In Hausa, finite verbs normally need a subject pronoun, even if a full noun subject is already present.
So:
- malami = the teacher
- ya = he (subject pronoun, masculine)
- nuna = to show
malami ya nuna literally feels like: “the teacher, he showed…”
This is normal in Hausa and is not redundant; the subject pronoun + verb combination (here ya nuna) is the standard way of conjugating the verb. The noun malami is optional extra information, but ya is required for a normal finite clause.
If you said only malami nuna, that would be ungrammatical in standard Hausa.
ya nuna is the perfective aspect of the verb nuna (“to show”) with the 3rd person masculine subject pronoun ya (“he”).
In practice, it usually corresponds to an ordinary past in English:
- malami ya nuna mana…
→ “the teacher showed us…”
→ also compatible with “the teacher has shown us…” in some contexts.
So in this sentence, it’s best to understand ya nuna as a completed action in the past: the teacher showed (us)…
mana is an indirect object pronoun meaning “to us / for us”.
Breakdown:
- malami – the teacher
- ya nuna – he showed
- mana – to us
- arewa, kudu da gabas – north, south and east
So malami ya nuna mana… = “the teacher showed us …” or literally “the teacher showed (to us)…”
Note the contrast with mu:
- mu is the full pronoun “we / us”
- mana is a clitic/short form used as an indirect object “to us / for us”
You cannot simply use mu in that position; you need mana after the verb to express “to us”.
In Hausa, “to show someone something” is structured like:
- [subject] + ya/ta… nuna + [indirect object pronoun] + [thing shown]
So:
- ya nuna mana taswira – he showed us a map
- ta nuna muku allo – she showed you (pl.) the board
Using mu directly after the verb (ya nuna mu) would mean “he showed us (as the thing being shown)”, which is not the intended meaning here and sounds odd in this context.
To express “show to us”, Hausa uses the dative/indirect object pronoun mana.
Here, da means “and”. It’s joining the last item in a list to the previous items:
- arewa – north
- kudu – south
- da gabas – and east
So:
- arewa, kudu da gabas = “north, south and east.”
This is similar to English style:
- north, south and east (only one and before the last item)
In other contexts, da can also mean “with” or indicate accompaniment (e.g. ya zo da littafi – “he came with a book”), but here it functions as simple “and”.
In this sentence you have:
- a kan allo – on the board
Here, a kan is a two-part expression:
- a – at / in / on (general locative preposition)
- kan – top, surface
Together: “on top of / on the surface of” → naturally just “on” in English.
You will also see akan written as one word in many texts:
- akan allo ≈ a kan allo
In modern usage, a kan and akan are often interchangeable in meaning “on (top of)”, and the choice is mostly orthographic/style. The two-word form a kan makes the components more obvious: preposition a + noun kan (“top/surface”).
Hausa does not have separate words for “a / an / the” the way English does. Nouns like malami and allo appear without an article, and context tells you whether they are definite or indefinite.
- malami can be “a teacher” or “the teacher”
- allo can be “a board” or “the board”
In a classroom-type context, malami will almost always be understood as “the teacher” (the known teacher in that situation), and allo as “the board” in that room.
So:
- malami ya nuna mana…
→ “the teacher showed us…” (most natural) - …a kan allo
→ “on the board”
Yes, ƙ is different from k in Hausa:
- k is an ordinary voiceless “k” (like in English key).
- ƙ is an implosive / ejective-type “k” sound; it’s produced with a kind of inward movement of air at the glottis.
For a learner, a practical approach is:
- make a normal k sound
- but tense your throat a bit and make the sound stronger and “tighter”, with a slight inward gulping feel.
Minimal pairs exist where k and ƙ change meaning, so it’s not just a spelling detail. In this sentence, ƙasa with ƙ is “land/country/ground”; kasa (with plain k) could be a different word in other contexts (e.g. kasa “fail”, kasa “under” when used with tone differences).