Learn Hardcore Hausa: Kada ku yi magana da haushi.

Kada ku yi magana da haushi.
- Talking to more than one person, or a polite/respectful “you.”
Kada ka yi magana da haushi.
- Talking to one male informally.
Kada ki yi magana da haushi.
- Talking to one female informally.

So yes, you can say kada ka… or kada ki…, but the meaning of “you” (singular/plural, formal/informal) changes accordingly.

What is the function of yi here? Why not just say kada ku magana da haushi?

In Hausa, many actions are expressed using a light verb like yi (“do, make”) plus a verbal noun.

magana = “speech, talk”
yi magana = literally “do speech” → “to speak, to talk”

You can’t usually drop yi here. Saying kada ku magana da haushi is ungrammatical; you need the verb:

✅ Kada ku yi magana da haushi.
❌ Kada ku magana da haushi.

What does magana da haushi literally mean?

Literally:

magana = speech, talking
da = with
haushi = anger, annoyance, irritation

So magana da haushi is literally “speech with anger,” or “talking with anger.” In natural English: “speaking angrily / talking in an angry way.”

Could I say “Don’t be angry” with this sentence, or is that different in Hausa?

This sentence specifically targets how you speak, not just your emotional state.

Kada ku yi magana da haushi.
- “Don’t speak angrily / Don’t talk in anger.”

If you want to say “Don’t be angry,” you’d usually use something like:

Kada ka yi fushi. (to one male)
Kada ki yi fushi. (to one female)
Kada ku yi fushi. (to you all / polite “you”)

Here fushi is “anger (as a state),” while haushi is more like “annoyance / irritation,” and magana da haushi focuses on angry speech.

Is da haushi an adverb like “angrily,” or is it a prepositional phrase?

Grammatically, da haushi is a prepositional phrase:

da = with
haushi = anger, irritation

But functionally it works like an adverbial: it tells you how the action (speaking) is done. So in terms of meaning, it corresponds to “angrily,” even though its structure is “with anger.”

Where does da haushi go in the sentence? Can it move?

The usual and most natural place for this phrase is after the verb phrase:

Kada ku yi magana da haushi.

Moving it elsewhere is not typical and would sound odd or overly marked. So you should keep the order:

Kada (negative imperative marker)
ku (subject “you”)
yi magana (verb phrase “speak”)
da haushi (manner phrase “with anger / angrily”)

Is there a difference between kada and kar in this kind of sentence?

Both kada and kar can introduce negative commands, and you’ll hear both in speech, but kada is generally considered more standard and is very common in writing and teaching.

For this sentence you’ll most often see:

Kada ku yi magana da haushi.

You might hear:

Kar ku yi magana da haushi.

Meaning-wise they’re very close here: “Don’t speak angrily.” As a learner, it’s safer to use kada until you’ve heard a lot of natural speech.

If I’m just talking to one friend, very informally, how would I say this?

If you’re talking to one person in a casual way, you’d normally use ka (to a man) or ki (to a woman):

To a male friend:
- Kada ka yi magana da haushi.
To a female friend:
- Kada ki yi magana da haushi.

Kada ku… is fine if you’re talking to a group, or if you’re using polite plural to one person (for respect/formality).

How would I say “Don’t talk to him angrily” in Hausa based on this sentence?

You can build on the same structure and add the indirect object:

Kada ku yi magana da haushi da shi.
- Literally: “Don’t speak with anger with him.”

More natural and slightly clearer is to specify “to him” with da shi right after the verb phrase:

Kada ku yi magana da shi da haushi.
- “Don’t talk to him angrily.”

Similarly, for one male informally:

Kada ka yi magana da shi da haushi.