Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tsohon rufi ya lalace a damina da ta gabata. - The old roof was damaged in the last rainy season.

rufi = roof, roofing.
tsoho = old (also “old person/elder” as a noun).
When tsoho comes before a noun to describe it, it usually appears as tsohon:
- tsohon rufi = an old roof / the old roof.
In Hausa, most adjectives follow the noun (e.g. gida babba – big house), but tsoho is one of the words that can come before the noun in a fixed phrase like:
- tsohon gida – old/former house
- tsohon shugaban ƙasa – former president

So tsohon rufi is a normal, idiomatic way to say old roof.

What is the role of ya in ya lalace?

ya is the third‑person masculine singular subject pronoun/marker. It marks the subject tsohon rufi and also carries tense–aspect information (here, perfective):

tsohon rufi (old roof) = subject noun phrase
ya = he/it (masc.), perfective subject marker
lalace = to get spoiled/ruined, to be damaged (intransitive)

So the structure is:

[Subject] [Subject marker] [Verb]
Tsohon rufi ya lalace = The old roof got ruined / became damaged.

In Hausa you normally need this subject marker (ya, ta, suka, etc.) before the verb even when the full noun subject is already stated.

What exactly does lalace mean, and how is it different from lalata?

lalace is an intransitive verb:
- It means “to be ruined, to get damaged/spoiled, to be in a bad condition.”
- Used when something ends up in a bad state, without focusing on who did it.
- Example: Rufin ya lalace. – The roof is ruined / has gone bad.
lalata is a transitive verb:
- It means “to ruin, to destroy, to spoil (something).”
- You normally say who or what did the ruining.
- Example: Iska ta lalata rufin. – The wind ruined the roof.

In the sentence Tsohon rufi ya lalace, the focus is on the state/result (“the roof ended up ruined”), not on the agent.

Is ya lalace more like “was damaged” or “has been damaged” or “got damaged”?

ya lalace uses the perfective aspect, which often corresponds to a completed change of state. In natural English, it can map to any of:

got damaged / got ruined
was damaged
has been damaged / has got ruined

The key idea is that:

The damage is complete.
The roof is now in a ruined condition as a result of something that happened (in the last rainy season).

Context determines whether you translate it with “was”, “got”, or “has been” in English.

Why is it ya for the roof, but ta later in da ta gabata?

Hausa has grammatical gender:

rufi (roof) is masculine, so it takes ya:
- Tsohon rufi ya lalace – The old roof (masc.) got damaged.
damina (rainy season) is feminine, so it takes ta:
- daminar da ta gabata – the rainy season that has passed
  (ta refers back to damina).

So:

ya = he/it (masc.) – for rufi, gida, etc.
ta = she/it (fem.) – for damina, shekara (year), mota (car), etc.

What does a damina mean? Is a a preposition here?

Yes. a is a preposition that often corresponds to in/at/on/during in English, depending on context.

damina = rainy season.
a damina = in the rainy season / during the rainy season.

In time expressions:

a dare – at night
a safiya – in the morning
a damina – in the rainy season

So in the sentence, a damina indicates when the roof was damaged.

How should I understand da ta gabata in this sentence?

da ta gabata is a relative clause modifying damina:

da – a relativizer, often translated as that/which/who.
ta – third‑person feminine subject marker, referring to damina.
gabata – “to pass, to be past,” here in a form meaning has passed / previous.

So:

damina da ta gabata ≈ the rainy season that has passed, i.e. the last rainy season / the previous rainy season.

Putting it together:

a damina da ta gabata = during the last rainy season.

Why is it damina da ta gabata, not damina ya gabata?

Because damina is feminine:

Feminine nouns (like damina, shekara, mota) use ta as the subject marker:
- damina ta gabata – the rainy season passed.
Masculine nouns (like rufi, gida) would use ya:
- rufi ya gabata – (if that made sense; structurally, “the roof passed”).

So in a relative clause:

damina da ta gabata = the rainy season that has passed.
If the head noun were masculine, you’d get:
- wata lokaci da ya gabata – a time that has passed.

Should it be a damina da ta gabata or a daminar da ta gabata? What’s the difference?

You may hear both forms in real speech:

a daminar da ta gabata (more “complete”/careful form)
- damina
  - -r (definite/construct ending) = daminar
- Literally: “in the rainy season that has passed”
a damina da ta gabata (common in colloquial usage)
- The -r is often dropped in fast or informal speech.
- Still understood as “in the last rainy season.”

For learning purposes, a daminar da ta gabata is the more textbook‑like form, but you’ll hear and see both.

Can the order change, like putting the time phrase first?

Yes. Hausa often allows the time expression to come at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis or flow:

Tsohon rufi ya lalace a damina da ta gabata.
– The old roof got damaged in the last rainy season.
A damina da ta gabata, tsohon rufi ya lalace.
– In the last rainy season, the old roof got damaged.

Both are correct; the meaning is the same. Moving a damina da ta gabata to the front just emphasizes when it happened.

Is there a way to say the same thing using lalata instead of lalace?

Yes, but switching to lalata will focus on the agent (what caused the damage), so you normally add a subject for that verb:

Iska ta lalata tsohon rufi a damina da ta gabata.
– The wind destroyed the old roof in the last rainy season.

Here:

Iska (wind) is the subject of ta lalata.
The roof is now the object:
- tsohon rufi = what got destroyed.

In your original sentence with lalace, the agent is left unspecified; it just states the result that the roof ended up ruined.

How would this sentence change if we were talking about several old roofs instead of just one?

For a plural subject, both the noun and the subject marker change:

Singular:
- Tsohon rufi ya lalace a damina da ta gabata.
  – The old roof got damaged in the last rainy season.
Plural (one natural way to say it):
- Tsofaffin rufaye sun lalace a damina da ta gabata.
  – The old roofs got damaged in the last rainy season.

Changes:

tsohon rufi → tsofaffin rufaye (old roofs).
ya (3rd person masc. singular) → sun (3rd person plural).
lalace stays the same verb; Hausa doesn’t change the verb form for plural here, only the subject marker changes.