Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.

To describe something as “clean,” Hausa commonly uses mai + tsabta (“one that has cleanliness”) rather than using tsabta alone as an adjective. So:

tsabta – cleanliness (noun)
mai tsabta – clean (adjective-like phrase: “possessing cleanliness”)

You can’t normally say *tabarma tsabta for “clean mat.” You need mai: tabarma mai tsabta.

Why is it tana and not yana? What is the role of gender here?

Hausa verbs use gendered subject markers in the 3rd person singular:

yana = “he / it (masc.) is / is doing …”
tana = “she / it (fem.) is / is doing …”

The noun tabarma (mat) is grammatically feminine, so it takes the feminine subject form:

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
→ “The clean mat (she/it – fem.) is in the room.”

If the subject were a masculine noun, you’d use yana instead:

Kare mai tsabta yana cikin ɗaki.
→ “The clean dog is in the room.”

How do I know that tabarma is feminine? Are there rules for gender?

Hausa gender is partly predictable and partly lexical (must be memorized). Some tendencies:

Many nouns ending in -a are feminine:
- tabarma (mat) – feminine
- mota (car) – feminine
- hanya (road) – feminine
Many human male nouns are masculine, female nouns feminine:
- namiji (man, male) – masc.
- mace (woman) – fem.

But there are exceptions, and some endings are not reliable. In practice, you usually learn the gender with the word, noticing which verb forms and pronouns are used:

Tabarma tana … → feminine
Littafi yana … (“book is …”) → masculine

Why do we have both tabarma mai tsabta and tana? Isn’t that like having two subjects?

It looks redundant to an English speaker, but in Hausa this is normal and grammatical.

The full noun phrase tabarma mai tsabta is the lexical subject.
The form tana is the subject marker / pronoun that must appear before many verbs and locative expressions.

The pronoun-like subject marker is obligatory, while the full noun phrase is optional or added for clarity/emphasis. So, you can also say:

Tana cikin ɗaki. – “It (she) is in the room.”
Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki. – “The clean mat is in the room.”

Think of tana as the place where tense/aspect attaches (present/progressive “is”), and tabarma mai tsabta as extra information about who/what that subject is.

What exactly does tana mean here? Is it the same as English “is”?

tana carries subject + aspect information:

ta- = 3rd person feminine singular subject (“she/it – fem.”)
-na = present / progressive aspect marker

In practice, in a sentence like tana cikin ɗaki, tana often translates simply as “is”:

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
→ Literally: “The clean mat (she-it) is-being in-inside room.”
→ Natural English: “The clean mat is in the room.”

The same form is used with real actions:

Tana tafiya. – “She is going / walking.”

So tana here is the normal way to say “is (in/at a place)” for a feminine singular subject.

Why is it cikin ɗaki and not just ciki ɗaki? What does the -n do?

ciki means “inside, interior, belly, stomach.”

When ciki is directly followed by another noun that it is linked to (here: ɗaki “room”), Hausa adds a linking consonant (a genitive-like marker), written as -n or -r depending on the word:

ciki + ɗaki → cikin ɗaki – “inside (of) the room”

So:

ciki – “inside” (by itself)
cikin ɗaki – “the inside of the room” / “in(side) the room”

This -n is very common in Hausa between two nouns, or between a noun and a following modifier.

What is the difference between cikin ɗaki and a ɗaki for “in the room”?

Both can be translated as “in the room,” but their nuances differ:

a ɗaki – a general locative: “in / at the room.”
- Very common, neutral: Yana a ɗaki. – “He is in the room.”
cikin ɗaki – more specifically “inside the interior of the room.”
- Emphasizes being inside rather than just at that place.

In many contexts they’re interchangeable, but cikin ɗaki highlights the interior a bit more clearly.

Can I change the word order and say Tabarma tana cikin ɗaki mai tsabta for “The clean mat is in the room”?

No, that changes the meaning.

In Hausa, a modifier like mai tsabta normally comes right after the noun it describes:

tabarma mai tsabta – clean mat
ɗaki mai tsabta – clean room

So:

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
→ The mat is clean; the location is just “the room.”

If you say:

Tabarma tana cikin ɗaki mai tsabta.
→ “The mat is in a clean room.”

Now mai tsabta is modifying ɗaki (room), not tabarma (mat). The original sentence specifically describes the mat as clean, not the room.

How would I say “The clean mats are in the room” in Hausa?

You need to make both the noun and the subject marker plural:

Singular: Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
Plural:
- Tabarmai – mats (plural of tabarma)
- masu tsabta – clean (plural form of mai tsabta)
- suna – “they are” (3rd person plural subject marker)

So:

Tabarmai masu tsabta suna cikin ɗaki.
→ “The clean mats are in the room.”

Breakdown:

tabarmai – mats
masu tsabta – ones that have cleanliness → clean (plural)
suna – they are
cikin ɗaki – inside the room

How would I say “The clean mat is in the rooms” instead?

Now you keep the subject singular but make ɗaki plural:

Plural of ɗaki (room) is ɗakuna (rooms).

So you get:

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗakuna.
→ “The clean mat is in the rooms.”

Grammatically:

Subject: tabarma mai tsabta – singular, feminine → tana
Location: cikin ɗakuna – in(side) the rooms (plural).

Why is there no word for “the” or “a/an” in Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki?

Hausa generally does not use separate words for “the” or “a/an” like English does.

Whether you translate a noun as “the mat” or “a mat” depends on context, not on a specific article word:

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
- In context, this could be:
  - “A clean mat is in the room.”
  - “The clean mat is in the room.”

If a particular mat is already known to both speaker and listener, English will use “the”, but Hausa simply uses the bare noun phrase. Definiteness and specificity are mostly inferred from context, word order, and sometimes demonstratives (e.g. wannan tabarma – “this mat”).

How do you pronounce the letter ɗ in ɗaki? How is it different from plain d?

The Hausa letter ɗ represents a voiced alveolar implosive, which is different from ordinary d:

d – a regular [d] sound, like in English “day.”
ɗ – made by pulling the tongue slightly back and in as you voice the sound, with a slight inward movement of air.

You can approximate ɗ by starting to say “d” but with a stronger, “popping” quality and a slight inward pull of the tongue. It’s a distinct sound in Hausa, so ɗaki (“room”) and daki (if written this way) would not be the same word.

Could I say Tabarma mai tsabta ce cikin ɗaki instead of tana cikin ɗaki?

You can use the copula particle ce (“is, it is” for feminine singular) in some structures, but the pattern is a bit different, and tana cikin ɗaki is the most natural way to express location.

Tabarma mai tsabta tana cikin ɗaki.
- Very natural: “The clean mat is in the room.”

A sentence like Tabarma mai tsabta ce cikin ɗaki would be interpreted more as:

“It is the clean mat that is in the room.” (a focused / contrastive structure)

So for a simple, neutral statement of location, use the tana cikin pattern, not ce.