Learn Hardcore Hausa: Malami ya tambayi dalibi wane launi yake so a littafinsa. - The teacher asked a student which colour he wants in his book.

In Hausa, even when you have a full noun as a subject (like Malami), you normally still use a subject pronoun right after it to carry tense/aspect information.

Malami ya tambayi… – The teacher asked…
- Malami = the lexical subject (“teacher”)
- ya = 3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun, here marking past/perfective “he did”

You cannot normally say:

✗ Malami tambayi dalibi… (ungrammatical)

The pattern is:

[Subject noun] + [subject pronoun (tense/aspect)] + [verb]

So ya is not “extra” in Hausa; it’s required for a normal finite verb clause.

What is the difference between tambayi and tambaya?

They are related but not the same:

tambayi – a verb: to ask (someone)
- ya tambayi dalibi – he asked the student
tambaya – a noun: a question
- ya yi tambaya – he asked a question (literally “he did a question”)
- ya yi wa dalibi tambaya – he asked the student a question

In your sentence:

ya tambayi dalibi uses the verb directly: “asked the student”.

How does wane launi work? Why wane and not menene or wani?

Hausa has different words for “what”, “which”, and “a (certain) …”:

wane – which (masculine singular)
wace – which (feminine singular)
wadanne – which (plural)
menene? – what is it? (from me “what” + ne copula)
wani – some / a certain (masculine singular, indefinite, not a question word)

Since launi (color) is grammatically masculine, you use wane:

wane launi – which color

If you said:

menene launi? – what is color? / what is the color? (different type of question)
wani launi – some color / a certain color (not asking, just describing an indefinite color)

So wane launi is the correct choice for “which color”.

In wane launi yake so, why is it yake and not yana so or ya so?

This has to do with the type of clause:

yana so – he likes / he is wanting in a simple main clause:
- Yana son ja. – He likes red.
ya so – often understood as he wanted/liked (once, in the past) (perfective).
yake so – typically used in a relative or embedded clause, like after “which”, “that”, etc.

Your phrase wane launi yake so is really:

which color *(it is that) he likes/wants*

Here yake is historically ya ke, where ke is an aspect/relative marker; written together as yake.

So:

As a stand‑alone statement:
- Yana son shuɗi. – He likes blue.
Inside a “which” phrase:
- Malami ya tambayi dalibi wane launi yake so.
  The teacher asked the student which color he likes/wants.

Who does the he in yake so refer to: the teacher or the student?

Grammatically, yake so is 3rd person masculine singular, and both malami (teacher) and dalibi (student) are masculine nouns, so purely from form it could refer to either.

In practice, Hausa (like English) relies on context and common sense. The most natural reading is:

The teacher asks the student which color the student wants in his book.

If you needed to be more explicit, you could say something like:

Malami ya tambayi dalibi wane launi dalibin yake so a littafinsa.
(literally, “which color the student wants in his book”)

But in normal usage, the basic sentence is understood as referring to the student’s preference.

What exactly does a mean in a littafinsa, and could we use another preposition?

a is a very common locative preposition in Hausa. Its core meanings are:

in, at, on, to (depending on context)

In a littafinsa, it is easiest to think of it as:

in his book or on his book → in context, for his book (its color).

You could sometimes rephrase with:

a cikin littafinsa – in the inside of his book / inside his book
ga littafinsa – “for his book” in some contexts

But a littafinsa is perfectly natural for talking about the color of or on the book (e.g. its cover).

How is possession shown in littafinsa?

littafinsa is made of:

littafi – book
-nsa – clitic pronoun meaning his (3rd person masculine singular)

When you attach -nsa to a noun ending in a vowel, it often appears as:

noun + nsa → littafi + nsa → littafinsa

So:

littafinsa – his book
littafinta – her book
littafinsu – their book / their books (context decides number)

This is the suffix form of possession. There is also a spaced form:

littafin sa – also his book (noun + linker -n
- separate pronoun sa)

Both littafinsa and littafin sa are used; the joined form often sounds a bit more compact and is very common in writing.

Is there a difference between littafinsa and littafin sa?

Semantically, in most contexts they both mean “his book”:

a littafinsa
a littafin sa

Differences are mostly in style and emphasis:

littafinsa – more tightly bound, often slightly more formal/standard in writing.
littafin sa – can give a bit more phonetic emphasis on sa (= his), and is sometimes preferred in speech for clarity or rhythm.

But for a learner, you can treat them as practical equivalents unless a teacher points out a specific nuance in a given context.

Could this sentence also mean that the teacher is asking about his own book rather than the student’s book?

Yes, in principle it could. The form littafinsa just says “his book”, not whose “his”. Both the teacher and the student are masculine.

So there are two logical readings:

The common, natural one:
- The teacher asks the student which color the student wants in his (the student’s) book.
Less likely, but possible if context supports it:
- The teacher asks the student which color the teacher wants in his (the teacher’s) book.

Hausa normally resolves such ambiguity through context, exactly as English does with “his”. If you want to disambiguate, you can explicitly repeat the noun:

… wane launi dalibin yake so a littafinsa. – clearly the student’s choice
… wane launi malam ya ke so a littafinsa. – clearly the teacher’s choice

How would this sentence change if the student were female?

Two things can change:

The noun dalibi (male student) becomes daliba (female student).
If you want to make clear that she is the one who wants the color, you can use the feminine pronoun in the relative part.

A version that clearly refers to a female student would be:

Malami ya tambayi daliba wane launi take so a littafinta.

Breakdown of the changed parts:

daliba – female student
take so – she (who) likes/wants (3rd sg. feminine in this relative form)
littafinta – her book (‑nta = her)

If you only changed dalibi → daliba but left yake so, littafinsa, context could still rescue the meaning, but formally the pronouns would still be masculine, which is not ideal.

How would you say: “The teacher asked the students which color they want in their books”?

You need plural for students, plural reference in want, and plural possession:

One natural version is:

Malami ya tambayi dalibai wane launi suke so a littattafansu.

Breakdown of changes:

dalibai – students (plural of dalibi)
suke so – they (who) want/like (3rd person plural relative form)
littattafansu – their books (plural of littafi is littattafai, here with possessive “their” → littattafansu)

So the whole sentence means:

The teacher asked the students which color they want in their books.

Can wane launi yake so stand alone as a question?

Yes, it can be used by itself as a direct question:

Wane launi kake so? – to a male: Which color do you want / like?
Wane launi kike so? – to a female

Notice the change:

With you (sg. male): kake so (ka + ke)
With you (sg. female): kike so (ki + ke)

The pattern is:

[wane launi] + [pronoun+ke] + so?

In your original sentence, wane launi yake so is not a direct question; it is a reported/embedded question as part of “the teacher asked the student…”.