Ni ina sha shayi da madara.

I drink tea with milk.

Breakdown of Ni ina sha shayi da madara.

• ni: I
• ne: to be
• sha: to drink
• shayi: the tea
• madara: the milk
• da: of

Questions & Answers about Ni ina sha shayi da madara.

What does each word in Ni ina sha shayi da madara mean?

Word‑for‑word:

• Ni – I / me (independent pronoun, used for emphasis or contrast)
• ina – I am / I (do) in the present/imperfective (1st person singular subject marker)
• sha – to drink, to consume (a liquid); also used for some other kinds of “consuming” (e.g. smoking)
• shayi – tea
• da – with / and
• madara – milk

So the basic structure is: I (emphatic) – I.am – drink – tea – with – milk.

Why are there two “I”s – Ni and ina? Isn’t that redundant?

It looks redundant from an English point of view, but each has its job:

• Ni = independent pronoun “I”. It’s used for focus or contrast, like “Me, I drink tea with milk.”
• ina = “I (am)” in the present/imperfective tense. It’s the normal subject marker that must appear with the verb.

So Ni ina sha… is like saying: “As for me, I drink…”
In neutral statements, Hausa speakers usually drop ni and just say:

• Ina sha shayi da madara. – I drink tea with milk. / I am drinking tea with milk.

You cannot drop ina here; that’s the element that actually ties the verb to the subject in this tense.

Can I say Ina sha shayi da madara without Ni?

Yes, and that’s the most common neutral form:

• Ina sha shayi da madara. – I drink tea with milk / I am drinking tea with milk.

Adding Ni in front:

• Ni ina sha shayi da madara.

adds emphasis or contrast, e.g.:

• Others: Su suna sha shayi ba tare da madara ba. – They drink tea without milk.
• You: Ni ina sha shayi da madara. – I, on the other hand, drink tea with milk.

Can I say Ni sha shayi da madara without ina?

No, not as a normal sentence.

In ordinary speech you need the appropriate subject‑tense marker (here ina) before the verb:

• ✅ Ni ina sha shayi da madara.
• ✅ Ina sha shayi da madara.
• ❌ Ni sha shayi da madara. (ungrammatical as a normal clause)

Poetry, songs, or very colloquial speech can sometimes bend the rules, but as a learner you should always include the tense/aspect form (here ina).

I learned that ina can mean “where?”. Why doesn’t it mean “where” here?

You’re right that ina? (with a questioning intonation and different tone) can mean “where?”, as in:

• Ina? – Where?
• Ina littafi? – Where is the book?

But in Ni ina sha shayi da madara, ina is:

• the 1st person singular subject + imperfective (“I am / I do”),

not the question word.

They’re written the same in basic spelling, but you can tell them apart by:

• Position:
  
  • Question “ina?” usually appears at the start of a question or right before what you’re asking about.
  • The subject marker ina comes right before a verb.
• Function:
  
  • Question word: Ina shayi? = “Where is the tea?”
  • Subject marker: Ina sha shayi. = “I drink tea / I am drinking tea.”

Does ina sha mean “I am drinking” right now or “I (usually) drink”?

ina sha is an imperfective form, and in Hausa it typically covers both:

• ongoing present:
  
  • Yanzu ina sha shayi da madara. – Right now I’m drinking tea with milk.
• habitual/general present:
  
  • Kullum ina sha shayi da madara. – I drink tea with milk every day.

Context (time expressions like now, every day, usually, always, etc.) tells you which reading is intended. There isn’t a strict separate form like English “I drink” vs “I am drinking.”

How would I say this in the past or the future?

Starting from Ina sha shayi da madara (“I drink / I am drinking tea with milk”):

• Simple past / perfective

  • Na sha shayi da madara. – I drank tea with milk. / I have drunk tea with milk.
  • Emphatic: Ni na sha shayi da madara.

• Near future / immediate intention

  • Zan sha shayi da madara. – I will drink tea with milk. / I’m going to drink tea with milk.
  • Emphatic: Ni zan sha shayi da madara.

The key idea: change ina to a different subject‑tense marker (na, zan, etc.) and keep sha shayi da madara after it.

What exactly does sha mean? Is it only “drink”?

The core meaning of sha is “to drink / consume (a liquid)”, as in:

• sha ruwa – drink water
• sha shayi – drink tea

But it also extends metaphorically, for example:

• sha taba – smoke tobacco (literally “drink tobacco”)
• sha wahala – suffer hardship / go through trouble
• sha mari – get slapped / receive a slap

In your sentence it’s used in the basic, literal “drink” sense: sha shayi da madara = “drink tea with milk.”

What does da mean here? Is it “and” or “with”? How do I say “tea and milk” vs “tea with milk”?

da can mean both “and” and “with”; context decides which one you hear.

1. “with” (accompaniment / mixture)
   In shayi da madara, da is best read as “with” – the milk is part of how you take your tea:

   • Ina sha shayi da madara. – I drink tea with milk.

2. “and” (listing separate items)
   If you clearly mean two separate things, context and intonation make it “and”:

   • Na siya shayi da madara. – I bought tea and milk.
     (two products in your shopping basket)

So formally it’s the same word; people interpret it from context and situation.

How would I say “I drink tea without milk”?

You can use ba tare da … ba (“without …”) or just make it clear you don’t use milk.

Two natural options:

1. Explicit “without”:

   • Ina sha shayi ba tare da madara ba. – I drink tea without milk.

2. Simpler, more conversational (if context is clear):

   • Ina sha shayi ba madara. – I drink tea, no milk.

To say “I don’t drink tea with milk (at all)”:

• Bana sha shayi da madara. – I don’t drink tea with milk.

Is the word order here like English (subject–verb–object)?

Yes, in this sentence Hausa word order is very similar to English:

• Ni / ina – subject (“I”)
• sha – verb (“drink”)
• shayi da madara – object (“tea with milk”)

So:

• (Ni) ina sha shayi da madara.
  = I am drinking tea with milk.

Basic declarative clauses in Hausa are typically S–V–O, just like English.

I’ve seen Ina shan shayi instead of Ina sha shayi. What’s the difference?

You will encounter both:

• Ina sha shayi (da madara).
• Ina shan shayi (da madara).

What’s going on:

• sha is the basic verb “to drink.”
• shan is a verbal noun/genitive form often used in the progressive:
  • Ina shan shayi. – literally “I am in the drinking of tea.”

In practice:

• Many speakers use both, and in everyday conversation they often mean the same thing (“I drink / I am drinking tea”).
• Textbooks and more formal descriptions may prefer ina shan shayi for ongoing action, but ina sha shayi is also very common and widely understood.

As a learner, you can safely imitate the version your teacher or course uses; just be aware that you’ll hear both in the wild.

How do you pronounce Ni ina sha shayi da madara?

Approximate pronunciation for an English speaker:

• Ni – “nee”
• ina – “EE-nah” (short vowels, stress usually on the first syllable: Í-na)
• sha – “shah” (like “sh” in ship
  • a as in father)
• shayi – “SHAH-yee” (two syllables: sha‑yi)
• da – “dah” (short a as in father)
• madara – “mah-DAH-rah” (three syllables, stress commonly on the middle: ma‑DÁ‑ra)

Other tips:

• sh is always like English sh.
• y is like English y in yes.
• r is typically a tapped or slightly rolled r, not the English “r.”
• Vowels (a, i, u, e, o) are generally pure like in Spanish/Italian, not diphthongs.

Is there grammatical gender or agreement I need to worry about with words like shayi and madara?

No. Hausa does not have grammatical gender like French, Spanish, or Arabic.

For this sentence:

• shayi (tea) and madara (milk) do not change form based on gender.
• The verb and subject markers (like ina) agree only in person and number, not in gender of the object.

So you don’t need to learn separate “masculine/feminine” versions of shayi or madara, and there’s no article that changes (no “le/la” type system).

How would I make a question or a negative from this sentence?

Starting point: Ina sha shayi da madara.

1. Yes–no question (intonation only)
   Just use a rising intonation, as in English:

   • Ina sha shayi da madara? – Do I drink tea with milk? / Am I drinking tea with milk?

   In conversation, context usually makes it clear that it’s a question.

2. Negative (present)
   Use the negative form of ina, which is bana (“I do not / I am not [doing]”):

   • Bana sha shayi da madara. – I don’t drink tea with milk. / I am not drinking tea with milk.

   Emphatic:

   • Ni bana sha shayi da madara. – I don’t drink tea with milk.

Those patterns (changing ina → bana, etc.) extend to other persons as well (e.g. kana → baka, yana → baya, etc.).