Learn Hardcore Hausa: A darasin kimiyya yau mun gano yadda ruwa ke canzawa ya zama tururi. - In today’s science lesson we discovered how water changes and becomes steam.

A darasin kimiyya
- Very natural and compact.
- Literally “in the lesson-of science” = in the science lesson.
A darasi na kimiyya
- Literally “in a lesson that is of science / in a science-type lesson”.
- Grammatically fine, but it sounds a bit more like “in a science-type lesson”, not the standard fixed subject “the science class” at school.

In everyday school context, A darasin kimiyya is the usual, idiomatic choice.

Why is yau (today) in the middle: A darasin kimiyya yau mun gano…? Could it go somewhere else?

Yau is an adverb of time, and Hausa is quite flexible about its position.

Here:

A darasin kimiyya yau mun gano…
= Today, in science class, we found out…
(Very natural.)

You can also say:

Yau a darasin kimiyya mun gano…
Mun gano yau a darasin kimiyya yadda… (less smooth, but possible)

Putting yau after A darasin kimiyya lightly emphasizes “today, in that class” as a setting. The meaning does not change much; it’s mainly a matter of style and emphasis.

What exactly is mun gano? How is it formed and what tense/aspect is it?

Mun gano breaks down as:

mu = we
-n = perfect marker attached to the pronoun
gano = to discover, to find out

So mun gano literally = “we-have discovered / we-have found out”.

Aspect:

It’s a perfect/completed action: we found out, we discovered (the discovery already happened earlier in time relative to the moment of speaking).
In normal English you can translate it as either “we discovered” or “we found out”.

What does yadda do in mun gano yadda ruwa ke canzawa…?

Yadda is a subordinator meaning how / the way that.

So:

mun gano yadda… = we found out how… or we discovered the way (in which)…

In this sentence:

yadda ruwa ke canzawa ya zama tururi
= how water changes (and) becomes steam

Yadda introduces a whole clause describing the manner or process: the way water changes into steam.

What is the function of ke in ruwa ke canzawa?

Ke is an auxiliary that marks aspect (similar to “be doing” or “tends to do”). Here it’s used in a relative/embedded clause after yadda.

ruwa ke canzawa ~= (how) water changes / is in the process of changing

Key points:

ruwa = water
ke = auxiliary (often used in focused or relative constructions)
canzawa = changing / to change (verbal noun from canza)

Compared to ruwa yana canzawa:

ruwa yana canzawa = water is (currently) changing.
ruwa ke canzawa fits well in a clause after yadda: “how water changes” in a more general or explanatory sense, not necessarily one single moment.

Is canzawa a noun or a verb? Why not just canza?

Canza is the basic verb “to change (something)” or “to change”.

Canzawa is the verbal noun / gerund:

canzawa = changing / change (the process)

In Hausa, the verbal noun is often used together with ke, na, yana, etc., to express ongoing or habitual action:

ruwa ke canzawa
Literally: water is in the state of changing
Naturally: water changes / is changing

So canzawa here behaves much like English “changing” in “water is changing”.

Why do we suddenly get ya zama tururi after ruwa ke canzawa? What does ya refer to?

Ya is the 3rd person singular masculine pronoun, and it refers back to ruwa (water).

In Hausa, ruwa is grammatically masculine, so you use ya for it.

Structure:

ruwa ke canzawa = water changes
ya zama tururi = it becomes steam

So the full idea is:

… how water changes, it becomes steam.
More natural English: “… how water changes into steam.”

Hausa often repeats a pronoun like this to continue talking about the same subject.

Why is it ya zama tururi and not yake zama tururi?

Both forms are possible in different contexts, but they are not identical.

ya zama tururi
- zama here behaves like a change of state / result verb.
- With ya, it sounds like a more punctual or complete change:
  “it becomes (ends up as) steam.”
yake zama tururi
- Would emphasize ongoing/habitual process (how it tends to be, or is in the process of becoming).
- Could sound more like “how it is being/gets to be steam”, which is less idiomatic in this explanatory, result-focused sentence.

Because the sentence is about the outcome of heating water (what it becomes), ya zama tururi is the natural choice.

Could we translate ya zama tururi as “it turns into steam”? Is that accurate?

Yes, “turns into steam” is a very good natural translation in this context.

Literal meaning:

zama = to become
tururi = steam

So ya zama tururi = it becomes steam.
But in everyday English, “turns into steam” is closer to how we usually explain this in a science/classroom context, and matches the Hausa intention well.

What exactly is tururi? Does it only mean steam?

Tururi primarily means steam or water vapour, especially the visible steam that comes from boiling water.

Usage:

ruwa ya zama tururi = the water became steam
tururin ruwa = the steam of water / water steam

In some contexts, tururi can also be used more broadly for hot vapor coming off liquids, but its core meaning is steam.