Learn Hardcore Hausa: Kada ka karya alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka. - Do not break the promise that you made to your friend.

ka – “you (masculine singular)” as a bound subject pronoun
kai – independent/stressed pronoun “you” (used for emphasis, after prepositions, etc.)
kana – “you are (doing something)” (progressive/continuous form, masc. sg.)

Compare:

Kai ka yi haka. – You did that. (kai for emphasis, ka as subject pronoun)
Kana tafiya. – You are going / you are on the way.
Kada ka tafi. – Don’t go.

In Kada ka karya alƙawari…, ka is required as the subject with kada; you cannot replace it with kai or kana.

What is the difference between karya and ƙarya? They look very similar.

They are different words:

karya (with k) – to break (e.g. to break a promise, law, bone).
ƙarya (with ƙ) – a lie, or lying.

So:

karya alƙawari – to break a promise.
yi ƙarya – to tell a lie.

In the sentence Kada ka karya alƙawari…, the word is karya “break”, not ƙarya “lie”.

Why do we say karya alƙawari to mean “break a promise”? Is there a special verb for “keep a promise”?

Yes, karya alƙawari is the normal way to say “break a promise”:

karya alƙawari – to break a promise.
cika alƙawari – to keep/fulfil a promise.

So:

Kada ka karya alƙawari… – Don’t break the promise…
Ka cika alƙawarin da ka yi. – Fulfil/keep the promise that you made.

What is da doing in alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka? I thought da just meant “and/with”.

Da has several functions in Hausa. Two common ones:

“and / with” – connective or comitative:
- Ali da Musa – Ali and Musa
- Na tafi da shi. – I went with him.
Relative marker “that / which / who” – introduces a relative clause:
- mutumin da ya zo – the man who came
- abin da ka saya – the thing that you bought

In alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka, da is the relative marker:

alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka
= “the promise that you made to your friend”

So here da does not mean “and/with”; it means “that/which”.

Where is the word for “the” in this sentence? How do you say “the promise”?

Hausa often doesn’t use a separate word for “the”. Definiteness is shown by:

context
possession (e.g. abokinka = your friend)
relative clauses (e.g. da ka yi wa abokinka = that you made to your friend)
or a linking -n/-r on the noun

You will commonly see:

alƙawarin da ka yi wa abokinka – the promise that you made to your friend

Here:

alƙawari = promise
alƙawarin = “the promise (which…)” – the -n marks it as specific and linked to the clause da ka yi wa abokinka.

In everyday speech, people may say either:

karya alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka, or
karya alƙawarin da ka yi wa abokinka,

but with -n it more clearly means “the specific promise that you made”.

What does yi wa mean here? Why not just yi abokinka?

Yi is a very general verb meaning “do / make”.

To say you do something to/for someone, Hausa usually uses yi wa (or yi ma) plus the person:

Na yi wa abokina alƙawari. – I made a promise to my friend.
Sun yi wa yara kyauta. – They gave a present to the children.

So in the relative clause:

…alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka
= “…the promise that you made to your friend”

If you say just yi abokinka, it sounds like “do your friend”, which is incomplete/odd. You need wa to mark the friend as the indirect object (the recipient).

Note: wa and ma are very close in meaning here:

yi wa abokinka alƙawari ≈ yi ma abokinka alƙawari
Both basically mean “make your friend a promise”.

How is abokinka formed, and is it different from abokin ka?

Abokinka means “your (male addressee’s) friend”.

It is made from:

aboki – friend
-n – linking/genitive marker (often merges in speech)
ka – “your” (masculine singular possessor)

Underlying form: abokin ka
Spoken/written as one word: abokinka

So:

abokina – my friend (aboki + na)
abokinka – your (m. sg.) friend
abokinki – your (f. sg.) friend
abokinku – your (pl.) friend
abokinsa – his friend
abokinta – her friend

You can also write it as two words:

abokin ka = abokinka
They are equivalent; the one-word form is very common in writing.

How would the sentence change if I were speaking to a woman, or to several people?

You mainly change the subject pronouns and the possessive pronouns.

To one man (original sentence):
- Kada ka karya alƙawari da ka yi wa abokinka.
To one woman:
- Kada ki karya alƙawari da ki yi wa abokinki.
  - ki instead of ka for “you (fem. sg.)”
  - abokinki – “your (fem. sg.) friend”
To several people:
- Kada ku karya alƙawari da kuka yi wa abokinku.
  - ku (in kada ku) for “you (plural)”
  - kuka yi as the plural past/relative “you (pl.) made”
  - abokinku – “your (pl.) friend”

So the pattern is consistent: change the pronouns to match the person, gender, and number you’re addressing.

Can you break down the whole sentence word by word?

Yes:

Kada – don’t (negative imperative marker)
ka – you (masc. singular subject pronoun after kada)
karya – break
alƙawari – promise
da – that / which (relative marker introducing the clause)
ka – you (masc. singular subject pronoun inside the relative clause)
yi – do / make
wa – to / for (marks the indirect object)
abokinka – your (m. sg.) friend (aboki + -n + ka)

So the structure is literally:

Don’t you break promise that you made to your friend.