Learn Hardcore Hausa: A yau ta saka gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan, amma ta yi amfani da mai sosai. - Today she put in a little salt and a little pepper, but she used a lot of oil.

Yau ta saka… = Today she put…
A yau ta saka… = Today she put… (often with a slight sense of contrast: today (as opposed to other days) she put…)

So A yau is very common at the beginning of a sentence, especially when you are contrasting today with other times, which fits the meaning of the whole sentence.

What is the role of ta in ta saka and ta yi amfani da?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun in the perfective (past-like) form. It marks both who is doing the action and the aspect/tense:

ta saka = she put (in)
ta yi amfani da = she used / she made use of

In Hausa, you normally need a subject pronoun before the verb; the verb doesn’t stand alone without it in normal statements. So you don’t say just saka gishiri for she put salt; you say ta saka gishiri.

Why is it ta saka and not ta sa? Aren’t sa and saka both “to put”?

Both sa and saka can mean to put, and there is overlap, but there are tendencies:

sa is very common and broad: to put, to wear, to place.
- ta sa riga = she put on a shirt / she wore a shirt.
saka can also mean to put in/into, to insert, to add, especially when talking about putting something inside something (like ingredients in food, money in an account, etc.).
- ta saka gishiri a miya = she put salt in the soup.

In many contexts, especially in cooking, saka is natural for adding an ingredient. Sa would not be wrong in all dialects, but saka fits the idea of adding in very well.

What does gishiri kaɗan mean, and why is kaɗan after the noun and not before it?

Gishiri = salt.
Kaɗan = a little / a small amount.

So gishiri kaɗan means a little (bit of) salt.

In Hausa, quantity words like kaɗan typically come after the noun:

ruwa kaɗan = a little water
kudi kaɗan = a little money
gishiri kaɗan = a little salt

Putting kaɗan before the noun (e.g. kaɗan gishiri) is not normal Hausa. The normal pattern is NOUN + kaɗan.

Can kaɗan also be used with countable things, or only with mass nouns like salt and pepper?

Kaɗan can be used with both mass nouns and count nouns, but the form may change a bit with count nouns.

With mass nouns (things you don’t usually count individually), just use NOUN + kaɗan:
- gishiri kaɗan – a little salt
- ruwa kaɗan – a little water
With countable plural nouns, you often see a plural form plus kaɗan, or a phrase like ’yan kaɗan:
- mutane kaɗan – a few people
- ’yan kaɗan – a few (people/things)

So kaɗan itself basically means little/few, but it adapts to the noun type (mass vs. count).

What does barkono kaɗan mean, and is barkono always “pepper” in the sense of chili?

Barkono = pepper, usually hot pepper / chili pepper in everyday Hausa.

So:

barkono kaɗan = a little (bit of) pepper / chili.

Context determines the exact type (fresh chili, ground chili, etc.), but barkono is generally understood as the spicy kind, not black pepper specifically (black pepper is often clarified as barkono baƙi if needed).

The word da appears twice: in gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan and in yi amfani da mai. Are these the same da?

It’s the same word da, but it has two related functions here:

As “and” (coordinating conjunction)
- gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan
  → a little salt and a little pepper
  Here da just joins two similar items.
As “with” / “using” (preposition)
- ta yi amfani da mai sosai
  Literally: she did use with oil a lot
  Natural English: she used a lot of oil.
In this construction yi amfani da X, da marks what is being used (the instrument/resource). You can think of it as “use X / make use of X”.

So yes, it is one word da, but it functions both as and and as with depending on the context.

What does amma mean, and where does it usually go in the sentence?

Amma means but / however.

Position:

It usually comes at the beginning of the clause it introduces:
- …, amma ta yi amfani da mai sosai.
  = …, but she used a lot of oil.
It can also start a whole sentence:
- Amma ta yi amfani da mai sosai.
  = But she used a lot of oil.

It behaves much like English “but”: it contrasts what follows with what came before (here: a little salt and pepper vs. a lot of oil).

How does the expression yi amfani da work? Why not just a single verb for “use”?

Yi amfani da is a very common Hausa light-verb construction:

yi = to do/make
amfani = use, benefit (noun)
yi amfani da X = literally do use with X → to use X / to make use of X

This pattern is extremely frequent in Hausa: yi + [verbal noun] + da + [object/instrument].

You could in theory have verbs that mean “to use”, but yi amfani da is the standard, natural way to say to use in many contexts:

Ina yin amfani da kwamfuta. – I use a computer.
Ta yi amfani da mai sosai. – She used a lot of oil.

What does mai mean here, and how do I know it’s “oil” and not “owner” or something else?

Hausa mai is polysemous (it has several meanings), but context tells you which one:

Oil / fat / grease – as a noun:
- In cooking contexts, mai almost always means cooking oil (or fat).
- So here ta yi amfani da mai sosai = she used a lot of oil.
Owner / person who has something – when followed by another noun:
- mai gida – the landlord / head of the house
- mai mota – car owner
Agentive or “one who… / something that…” (like a doer or thing with a quality), again followed by a noun or word.

In your sentence, mai appears by itself in a cooking context and after yi amfani da, which strongly signals the “oil” meaning.

What does sosai mean, and where does it usually appear in the sentence?

Sosai means very, a lot, extremely, intensely.

In ta yi amfani da mai sosai, it modifies the whole phrase yi amfani da mai, giving the idea of “to a great extent / a lot”:

mai sosai (in that position) ≈ a lot of oil / very much oil.

Position:

Sosai usually comes after the word or phrase it emphasizes:
- zafi sosai – very hot
- ta gaji sosai – she is very tired
- ta yi amfani da mai sosai – she used a lot of oil / she used oil very much.

Other ways to say “a lot/much” include da yawa, but sosai often sounds a bit stronger or more emphatic.

How would the sentence change if the subject were he or I instead of she?

You mainly change the subject pronoun (and the form of yi where needed). Everything else stays the same.

Original (she):
- A yau ta saka gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan, amma ta yi amfani da mai sosai.
  → Today she put a little salt and a little pepper, but she used a lot of oil.
With he (ya):
- A yau ya saka gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan, amma ya yi amfani da mai sosai.
  → Today he put a little salt and a little pepper, but he used a lot of oil.
With I (na):
- A yau na saka gishiri kaɗan da barkono kaɗan, amma na yi amfani da mai sosai.
  → Today I put a little salt and a little pepper, but I used a lot of oil.

So the structure stays the same; only the subject pronoun (and therefore the agreement on yi) changes.