Learn Hardcore Hausa: Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo. - The female teacher wrote the letter Z on the blackboard.

The masculine form is malami = “male teacher.”
Malama is grammatically and semantically feminine, so it naturally goes with the feminine pronoun ta (“she”).
In this sentence, Malama is just a common noun (“the (female) teacher”), not a proper name. It’s capitalized only because it starts the sentence.

Why do we need the pronoun ta if we already have Malama as the subject?

In Hausa, the short subject pronoun (here ta) is obligatory in normal verbal sentences, even when you already have a full noun as the subject.

Structure:

Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo.
- Malama = the teacher (full noun)
- ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (“she”)
- rubuta = wrote

You can think of it as: “The (female) teacher, she wrote Z on the board.”

So:

You cannot say: ✗ Malama rubuta Z a kan allo.
But you can drop the noun and keep the pronoun: Ta rubuta Z a kan allo. = “She wrote Z on the board.”

The pronoun carries both agreement (gender/person) and aspect/tense information, so it has to be there.

What tense or aspect is expressed by ta rubuta, and how would it differ from a progressive form?

Ta rubuta is in the perfective aspect. It describes a completed action. Depending on context, in English it can be translated as:

“She wrote …” (simple past), or
“She has written …” (present perfect).

To talk about an ongoing action (“is writing”), you normally use a progressive form:

Tana rubuta Z a kan allo. = “She is writing Z on the board.”

Here:

ta rubuta → completed: “wrote / has written”
tana rubuta → ongoing: “is writing / writes (right now)”

Can ta rubuta also mean “she has written”, or only “she wrote”?

Ta rubuta covers both meanings. Hausa perfective does not strictly distinguish between:

“She wrote Z on the board.”
“She has written Z on the board.”

Context decides which English tense fits better. The Hausa form itself is just perfective (completed).

Could we say Malama ya rubuta Z a kan allo if the teacher is male, or is there something else we should change?

You need both the right noun and the matching pronoun:

For a male teacher:
- Malami ya rubuta Z a kan allo. = “The (male) teacher wrote Z on the board.”
- malami = male teacher
- ya = 3rd person singular masculine (“he”)
For a female teacher:
- Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo.

You should not say Malama ya rubuta… or Malami ta rubuta…; the noun’s natural gender and the pronoun (ya / ta) must agree.

What does the preposition a kan mean literally, and how is it used?

a kan literally means “at/on (the) top (surface)”:

a = a general locative preposition (“in/at/on”)
kan = “top, head, surface”

Together, a kan X very commonly means “on X / on top of X” in a physical, spatial sense:

Littafi yana a kan tebur. = “The book is on the table.”
Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo. = “The teacher wrote Z on the board.”

Pattern:

[Verb] [thing] a kan [surface].

Is there a difference between a kan and akan? I have seen both spellings.

Yes, they are not the same in standard descriptions of Hausa:

a kan (two words)
- Meaning: “on (top of), on the surface of” (physical location)
- Example: Littafi yana a kan tebur. = “The book is on the table.”
akan (one word)
- Often means “about / regarding”:
  - Muna magana akan littafi. = “We are talking about the book.”
- Also appears inside the habitual construction:
  - Yakan yi haka. = “He usually does that.”

So for “on the board” in this sentence, you want a kan allo, not akan allo.
(Some speakers may write loosely, but as a learner it’s safer to keep the distinction: a kan = on, akan = about / usually.)

Can we drop the a and just say kan allo, or even a allo, and still mean “on the board”?

You will encounter all three in real usage:

a kan allo – very clear and explicit
- Literally: “on top of the board.”
kan allo – common, especially in speech
- The preposition a is often omitted before kan; meaning still “on the board.”
a allo – also used, especially with verbs like rubuta (“to write”)
- Ya rubuta a allo. = “He wrote on the board.”

For a learner, a kan allo is a safe, transparent choice. Kan allo and a allo are also acceptable and natural, but slightly more compact/colloquial.

How is definiteness expressed here? Allo is translated as “the board”, but I don’t see any word like “the”.

Hausa has no separate word for “the” or “a/an”. The noun allo by itself can mean either:

“a board” (indefinite), or
“the board” (definite),

depending entirely on context.

In a classroom situation, everyone knows which board is meant (the classroom board), so English naturally uses “the board” in translation:

Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo.
- literally: “A/that board”
- natural translation: “The teacher wrote Z on the board.”

If you need to be explicitly definite or demonstrative in Hausa, you can add words like:

wannan allo = “this board”
allon nan = “that board (here)”

But you don’t need any article equivalent to English “the.”

Why is Z placed between rubuta and a kan allo? What is the usual word order with direct objects and prepositional phrases?

The basic order in Hausa is:

Subject – (subject pronoun) – Verb – Direct Object – Prepositional / locative phrase

So in your sentence:

Malama (subject noun)
ta (subject pronoun)
rubuta (verb “wrote”)
Z (direct object)
a kan allo (prepositional phrase “on the board”)

This is the normal pattern:

Ta ci abinci a gida. = “She ate food at home.”
- ci abinci = ate food (verb + direct object)
- a gida = at home (prepositional phrase)

So Z comes right after rubuta because it is the direct object of “write.”

Could we replace Z with a full noun phrase, like “a sentence” or “the homework”, without changing the structure?

Yes. The structure stays the same; you just swap the object. For example:

Malama ta rubuta jumla a kan allo.
- “The teacher wrote a sentence on the board.”
Malama ta rubuta aikin gida a kan allo.
- “The teacher wrote the homework on the board.”

If you replace the object with a pronoun (like “it”), then you add an object pronoun:

Malama ta rubuta shi a kan allo. = “The teacher wrote it on the board.”
- shi = “it / him” (masculine object pronoun)

But with a full noun (like Z, jumla, aikin gida), you just place that noun where Z is in the original sentence.

Can we drop Malama and just say Ta rubuta Z a kan allo?

Yes. If it’s already clear from context who “she” is, you can simply say:

Ta rubuta Z a kan allo. = “She wrote Z on the board.”

This is very natural in conversation. The crucial element is the pronoun ta; that cannot be dropped, but the full noun Malama can be omitted when it’s understood.

Does rubuta need any object marker here? I expected something like ta rubuta shi, but we only have Z.

In Hausa:

You use a separate object pronoun only when the object itself is a pronoun (it, him, her, them…).
- Ta rubuta shi. = “She wrote it.”
- Ta gan shi. = “She saw him/it.”
When the object is a full noun phrase, you just put that noun phrase after the verb, without any extra object marker.

So:

Ta rubuta Z. = “She wrote Z.” (Z is a noun/letter name, no shi needed.)
Ta rubuta wasiƙa. = “She wrote a letter.”

That’s why ta rubuta Z is correct as is.

What does allo mean in other contexts? Is it only a classroom board?

Allo basically means a “board / slate / tablet”, especially something flat and hard used for writing.

Common uses:

allo in school = blackboard/whiteboard/chalkboard.
Traditional slate used by Qur’anic school students is also called allo.

It can sometimes refer more generally to a piece of board/wooden tablet, but in modern everyday school contexts, allo almost always means “the classroom board.”

How do you pronounce Malama and rubuta, and is there anything tricky for English speakers in this sentence?

Approximate pronunciations (using English-like hints):

Malama: ma-la-ma
- each a like “a” in “father” (not like “cat”)
- syllables are fairly even: MA-la-ma
rubuta: ru-bu-ta
- r is a tapped / lightly rolled r, not the English “r”
- u like “oo” in “food”, but shorter and pure
- again, syllables are clear: RU-bu-ta

The main potentially tricky part for English speakers is the Hausa r:

It’s a quick tap of the tongue against the ridge behind your teeth (like the Spanish r in “pero”).

Otherwise, the words in Malama ta rubuta Z a kan allo are quite close to how they’re written, with simple, open vowels.