Breakdown of Ni ina da adireshi guda biyu, ɗaya a birni, ɗaya a ƙauye, amma lambata ta waya guda ɗaya ce.
Questions & Answers about Ni ina da adireshi guda biyu, ɗaya a birni, ɗaya a ƙauye, amma lambata ta waya guda ɗaya ce.
In Hausa, you often see a separate pronoun plus a conjugated verb for emphasis or clarity.
- Ni = “I” (independent pronoun)
- ina = “I am / I (am) in the state of …” (from the verb zama/ kasancewa, but used very broadly)
- ina da = “I have” (literally: “I am with / I am having”)
So:
- Ina da adireshi guda biyu. = I have two addresses.
- Ni ina da adireshi guda biyu. = Me, I have two addresses. (slight emphasis on I)
The Ni adds emphasis or contrast (for example, compared to someone else). It’s common and natural.
Hausa does not use a separate verb that directly means “to have” the way English does. Instead, it uses a structure with da (“with”) and a form like ina:
- ina da X = “I have X” (literally “I am with X”)
- kana da X = “you (m.sg.) have X”
- kina da X = “you (f.sg.) have X”
- yana da X = “he has X”
- tana da X = “she has X”
In the sentence:
- Ni ina da adireshi guda biyu… = “I have two addresses…”
So da here is functioning like “with,” but together with ina it’s the normal way to express possession.
Guda is a counting word that reinforces the idea of “individual, separate items.” It’s often translated loosely as “one unit / piece.”
- adireshi biyu = two addresses
- adireshi guda biyu = two (separate) addresses
In many contexts, guda is optional:
- Ina da adireshi biyu.
- Ina da adireshi guda biyu.
Both are understood as “I have two addresses.” Guda adds a slight nuance of “counted units,” and it is very common before small numbers.
With “one,” guda ɗaya is also common:
- guda ɗaya = exactly one / one single one
You could also say simply ɗaya, but guda ɗaya sounds a bit more explicit or emphatic: “only one / just one.”
In Hausa, when you count many nouns, the noun often stays in the singular form, and the number shows that it’s plural:
- mutum biyu = two people (literally “person two”)
- gida uku = three houses (literally “house three”)
- adireshi guda biyu = two addresses (literally “address one-unit two”)
You don’t say “adire-shi-shi” or anything like that; adireshi remains singular, and biyu shows the plural quantity. This is a common and normal pattern in Hausa.
Hausa allows you to leave out (omit) words that are obvious from context, especially verbs like “to be / to be located.”
The full idea would be something like:
- (Adireshi) ɗaya yana a birni, (adireshi) ɗaya yana a ƙauye.
- One address is in the city, one address is in the village.
But since adireshi and yake / yana (“is”) are understood, you can shorten it to:
- ɗaya a birni, ɗaya a ƙauye
- one [address] in the city, one [address] in the village
This kind of ellipsis (leaving out obvious parts) is very natural in Hausa, especially in coordinated phrases like this.
Both are place nouns, but they contrast urban and rural:
- birni = city, town (urban area)
- ƙauye = village, countryside, rural area
So in the sentence:
- ɗaya a birni = one (address) in the city
- ɗaya a ƙauye = one (address) in the village
This matches the English contrast “in the city vs. in the village / countryside.”
Break it down:
- lamba = number
- -ta (suffix) = “my” for a feminine noun
- lambata = my number (literally “number-my”)
Now you want to say “my phone number”:
- waya = phone
- When you say “X of Y” (a genitive / possessive structure), Hausa uses a linker that agrees with the gender of X.
- lamba is feminine, so the linker is ta.
So:
- lambata ta waya
- lamba-ta = my number
- ta waya = of phone
Literally: “my number of phone” → “my phone number.”
The first ta is a possessive suffix (“my”), and the second ta is a genitive linker (“of”) agreeing with the feminine noun lamba. They look the same on the surface, but they do different jobs.
Ne and ce are copulas used for equational sentences (“X is Y”) in Hausa. Which one you use depends mainly on the gender (and sometimes number) of the subject:
- Masculine singular subject → usually ne
- Feminine singular subject → usually ce
Here, the underlying subject is lamba (“number”), which is feminine:
- lamba (fem.) → ce
So:
- lambata ta waya guda ɗaya ce.
- “My phone number is one (only one).”
You are essentially saying:
- (Lambata ta waya) guda ɗaya ce. = It is one.
Because lamba is feminine, Hausa uses ce, not ne.
Yes, you can say:
- lambata ta waya ɗaya ce.
This is still “My phone number is one” / “I have only one phone number.”
Guda adds a bit of emphasis on the count as a single unit:
- ɗaya ce = it is one
- guda ɗaya ce = it is one single one / exactly one
In everyday speech, both are acceptable. Guda ɗaya can sound slightly more explicit or emphatic, but the basic meaning is the same.
Amma is a common conjunction in Hausa meaning “but / however”. It introduces a contrast with what came before.
In the sentence:
- Ni ina da adireshi guda biyu… amma lambata ta waya guda ɗaya ce.
- I have two addresses… but my phone number is only one.
So amma is functioning just like English “but”, showing contrast between “two addresses” and “only one phone number.” It can appear at the beginning of a clause or even at the start of a sentence, like English “But…”.
The normal word order in Hausa is:
- [NOUN] [NUMBER]
- often: [NOUN] [guda] [NUMBER]
So:
- adireshi biyu
- adireshi guda biyu
These are natural.
Putting the number before the noun, like guda biyu adireshi, is not normal in standard Hausa and will sound wrong or at least very odd.
So you should keep the order: noun → (guda) → numeral.
Yes, that is perfectly correct:
- Ina da adireshi guda biyu, ɗaya a birni, ɗaya a ƙauye, amma lambata ta waya guda ɗaya ce.
This means the same thing. Adding Ni:
- Ni ina da…
just gives a bit of emphasis to “I,” like saying:
- “Me, I have two addresses…”
So both forms are grammatically correct; it’s mainly a matter of style and emphasis.