Learn Hardcore Hausa: Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. - I bought oil at the market today.

Subject + perfective (as in the sentence):
- Na saya mai. – I bought oil.
Possessive linker “of / belonging to”:
- motar Malam na – the car of my teacher
- gidan Audu – Audu’s house (here the linker is built into the noun, but same idea)

You can tell which na it is from position and structure:

At the very beginning before a verb → usually subject marker.
Between two nouns → usually possessive/linker.

Why is “I” attached to the verb (na saya) instead of being a separate word?

Hausa generally marks the subject with short prefixes (or clitics) on the verb, instead of separate full pronouns in neutral sentences.

Na saya mai. – I bought oil.
Ka saya mai. – You (m.sg.) bought oil.
Ya saya mai. – He bought oil.

You can add a full pronoun for emphasis or contrast:

Ni na saya mai. – I (as opposed to someone else) bought oil.
Ni ne na saya mai. – It’s me who bought oil.

But the normal, un-emphasised way is just Na saya… without a separate “I” word.

Is Na saya… past tense (“I bought”) or present perfect (“I have bought”)?

Na saya… is perfective aspect. In English it can map to:

simple past:
- Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. – I bought oil at the market today.
present perfect:
- Na saya mai. – I have bought oil (already).

The time adverb (yau = today, jiya = yesterday, etc.) and context decide the best English translation.

For ongoing or right-now buying, you switch to an imperfective/progressive form:

Ina sayen mai a kasuwa. – I am buying oil at the market.
Ina yawan sayen mai a kasuwa. – I often buy oil at the market.

What exactly does saya mean, and is it different from “sell”?

saya = to buy (you are the buyer).

There is a related verb:

sayar = to sell.

Compare:

Na saya mai a kasuwa. – I bought oil at the market.
Na sayar da mai a kasuwa. – I sold oil at the market.

They look similar but have opposite directions:

saya → money goes out, you get something.
sayar → you give something away for money.

Also note: saya is normally transitive – it usually takes an object:

Na saya littafi. – I bought a book.
Just Na saya without an object is only natural if the object is very clear from context (“Did you buy it?” – “Na saya.”).

What does mai mean here, and how is it different from other uses of mai?

In this sentence, mai is a noun meaning “oil”, typically cooking oil.

Hausa also has a very common prefix-like word mai- meaning “owner of / person who has / one characterized by”, for example:

mai mota – car owner
mai kudi – rich person (literally “owner of money”)
mai kyau – beautiful / good-looking person (literally “one with beauty”).

Differences:

Noun “oil”: usually appears by itself after verbs like in your sentence:
- Na saya mai. – I bought oil.
Owner/qualifier “mai-”: typically comes before another word:
- mai gida – landlord / house owner
- mai tafiya – traveller (one who travels).

So position and context tell you which mai it is.

What is the role of a before kasuwa? Is it “in” or “at”?

a is a general locative preposition. It often corresponds to “in, at, on” depending on the noun and context. Here:

a kasuwa ≈ “at the market / in the market”.

Some rough guidelines:

a + place – neutral “in/at”:
- a gida – at home
- a makaranta – at school
- a kasuwa – at the market
cikin – more literally inside something:
- a cikin gida – inside the house
- a cikin jaka – in the bag

You can say both a kasuwa and a cikin kasuwa, but a kasuwa is shorter and very common.

Why is there no word for “the” in a kasuwa? How do I say “in the market” vs “in a market”?

Hausa does not have separate articles like “the” and “a/an”. A bare noun can be translated as either, depending on context:

a kasuwa can be “at the market” or “at a market”.

If you really need to show that the market is specific, Hausa usually uses other tools:

a kasuwar nan – at this market
a kasuwar garinmu – at the market of our town
a kasuwar da muka saba zuwa – at the market we usually go to

So there’s no direct one-word equivalent of “the”; specificity is built in with things like -r/-n endings, demonstratives, and relative clauses.

Can I move the word yau to the beginning, like “Today I bought oil at the market”?

Yes. Time words like yau are quite flexible in position.

All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:

Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. – neutral: I bought oil at the market today.
Yau na saya mai a kasuwa. – emphasises “today”: Today I bought oil at the market.
A kasuwa na saya mai yau. – emphasises the place first: At the market, I bought oil today.

The basic verb–object–place–time order in your original sentence is very natural and common. Moving yau mainly changes emphasis, not the core meaning.

How do I say this sentence in the negative: “I didn’t buy oil at the market today”?

Standard simple negation in Hausa wraps the sentence with ba … ba and adjusts the subject marker. For “I” in perfective:

Ban saya mai a kasuwa yau ba.
– I didn’t buy oil at the market today.

Structure:

Ba + na → ban (nasalization: na → ban)
verb and rest of the sentence
final ba.

So the pattern is:

Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. – I bought oil at the market today.
Ban saya mai a kasuwa yau ba. – I didn’t buy oil at the market today.

How would I turn this into a yes–no question like “Did you buy oil at the market today?” or “Did you buy oil at the market today?” for “you”?

To ask a normal yes–no question, Hausa often just uses question intonation (rising at the end) and changes the subject marker for “you”.

Examples:

Ka sayi mai a kasuwa yau? – Did you (male, singular) buy oil at the market today?
Kin sayi mai a kasuwa yau? – Did you (female, singular) buy oil at the market today?
Kun sayi mai a kasuwa yau? – Did you (plural) buy oil at the market today?

You don’t need to add a word like “do/did”; the subject marker (ka/kin/kun) plus question intonation is enough.

If you want a more explicitly marked question, you can add ne/ce or a question word, but for a simple yes/no it’s not required:

Ka sayi mai a kasuwa yau ne? – slightly more marked, still “Did you buy oil at the market today?”

How can I change na to talk about other people (he, she, we, they) with the same sentence?

Replace na with the appropriate subject marker for the perfective. Using …saya mai a kasuwa yau:

Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. – I bought oil at the market today.
Ka sayi mai a kasuwa yau. – You (m.sg.) bought oil at the market today.
Kin sayi mai a kasuwa yau. – You (f.sg.) bought oil at the market today.
Ya saya mai a kasuwa yau. – He bought oil at the market today.
Ta saya mai a kasuwa yau. – She bought oil at the market today.
Mun saya mai a kasuwa yau. – We bought oil at the market today.
Kun sayi mai a kasuwa yau. – You (pl.) bought oil at the market today.
Sun saya mai a kasuwa yau. – They bought oil at the market today.

Note: with ka/kin/kun you often see sayi instead of saya, a common alternation with some subject pronouns; both saya and sayi appear in real usage.

Is the word order in Na saya mai a kasuwa yau the normal Hausa word order?

Yes. The sentence follows a very typical pattern:

Subject marker – Verb – Object – Place – Time

So:

Na (I)
saya (bought)
mai (oil)
a kasuwa (at the market)
yau (today)

This is a good default template to keep in mind:

[Subject marker] + [Verb] + [Object] + [Place] + [Time]

You can move Place or Time to the front for emphasis, but the version in your sentence is completely standard.

How would I say “I am buying oil at the market today” instead of “I bought…”?

Use the imperfective/progressive form with ina and the verbal noun:

Ina sayen mai a kasuwa yau.
– I am buying oil at the market today.
(can also mean I will be buying oil at the market today depending on context)

Structure:

Ina – “I am / I (progressive)”
sayen – verbal noun of saya (“buying”)
mai – oil
a kasuwa yau – at the market today.

So:

Na saya mai a kasuwa yau. – completed action: I bought / I have bought oil today.
Ina sayen mai a kasuwa yau. – ongoing or arranged action: I am (in the process of) buying oil at the market today.