Learn Hardcore Hausa: Tabarmar a cikin ɗaki tana laushi sosai.

definiteness: “the mat” (not just any mat)
or a link to something that follows (genitive/possessive relation), e.g. tabarmar gida “the mat of the house.”

In your sentence, tabarmar is best understood as “the mat,” definite and specific.

Can I say tabarma a cikin ɗaki tana laushi sosai without the final -r?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:

Tabarma a cikin ɗaki tana laushi sosai ≈ “A mat in the room is very soft.” (indefinite; we don’t know which one)
Tabarmar a cikin ɗaki tana laushi sosai ≈ “The mat in the room is very soft.” (a particular mat that speaker and listener can identify)

So dropping -r makes the mat non‑specific.

What does a cikin ɗaki literally mean, and why do we need both a and cikin?

Literally:

a = “at / in / on” (a general preposition)
cikin = “inside (of)”
ɗaki = “room”

So a cikin ɗaki is “in the inside of the room,” i.e. “in the room (inside it).”

You often see this a + cikin + noun pattern in Hausa to clearly express “inside X,” not just “at X.”

Is a cikin ɗaki describing the mat or the verb “is soft”?

In this sentence it most naturally describes the mat, not the verb:

Tabarmar [a cikin ɗaki] = “the mat [in the room]”
tana laushi sosai = “is very soft”

So the structure is:
[The mat in the room] is very soft.

What’s the difference between a cikin ɗaki, cikin ɗaki, and a ɗaki?

All are possible, but with slightly different typical uses:

a cikin ɗaki – very common; clearly means inside the room.
cikin ɗaki – “inside the room” as well, often used as a noun phrase by itself (e.g. Ina cikin ɗaki “I’m in the room”). You can also say tabarma cikin ɗaki in some styles.
a ɗaki – literally “at the room / in the room,” a bit less explicit about “inside,” but often used in speech and usually understood as “in the room” from context.

Your sentence uses the very clear and common a cikin ɗaki.

What exactly is tana? Is it one word or two parts?

Tana is made of two parts fused together:

ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (“she / it” for feminine nouns)
na = an aspect marker (often called the progressive / imperfective marker)

So tana roughly corresponds to “she is / it is (doing/being).”

In Tabarmar a cikin ɗaki tana laushi sosai, tana agrees with tabarmar (a feminine noun), so it’s “it (she) is.”

Why is it tana and not yana here?

Hausa has grammatical gender:

ya / yana = 3rd person masculine (“he / it” for masculine nouns)
ta / tana = 3rd person feminine (“she / it” for feminine nouns)

Tabarma is grammatically feminine, so you must use the feminine form:

✅ Tabarmar … tana laushi sosai.
❌ Tabarmar … yana laushi sosai. (ungrammatical because of gender mismatch)

Is tana here a continuous tense like “is being soft,” or is it just “is soft”?

Formally, tana is the progressive/imperfective form, but with stative qualities (like softness, size, height, etc.) Hausa normally uses this form to mean a simple present state.

So:

tana laushi sosai = “it is very soft” (a current state), not “it is in the process of becoming soft.”

The same pattern appears with other quality words:
Yaro yana tsawo – “The boy is tall.”

I learned mai laushi for “soft.” Why does the sentence use laushi alone with tana?

In Hausa, many “adjectives” are actually nouns of quality:

laushi = “softness / softness-quality”
tsawo = “height / tallness”
nisa = “distance / far-ness”

You can use these nouns:

Predicatively with tana / yana:
- tabarmar tana laushi sosai – “the mat is very soft” (literally “is in softness a lot”).
Attributively with mai (literally “one that has”):
- tabarma mai laushi sosai – “a very soft mat” (literally “a mat that has much softness”).

Both are normal. The sentence chooses pattern (1) – using the quality noun laushi as the predicate of the clause.

Could I also say Tabarmar a cikin ɗaki tana da laushi sosai?

Yes, that is also grammatical and natural:

tana laushi sosai
tana da laushi sosai

Both can describe softness as a state. Nuance:

tana laushi sosai – slightly more direct “is (in) softness.”
tana da laushi sosai – literally “has a lot of softness.”

In everyday speech, both forms are widely used, and the difference is minimal in this context.

What exactly does sosai mean, and why is it placed after laushi?

Sosai is an intensifier meaning “very, really, extremely, a lot.”

In Hausa, intensifiers like sosai typically come after the adjective or quality word they modify:

ƙanƙara sanyi sosai – “the ice is very cold”
ya gaji sosai – “he is very tired”

So laushi sosai is “very soft,” and the order laushi sosai (not sosai laushi) is the normal pattern.

How do I pronounce ɗaki and laushi correctly?

Some key points:

ɗaki
- ɗ is an implosive d (swallowing sound slightly inward), not the same as plain d.
  Try pulling your tongue slightly back and “drawing in” a tiny bit of air when you say d.
- Stress is usually on the first syllable: ƊA‑ki.
laushi
- sh in Hausa is written sh, but here you see sh’s sound in the sh part of –ushi (spelled shi; pronounced “shee”).
- Roughly LAU‑shee, where au is like the ow in English “cow.”

Native-like pronunciation of ɗ is tricky at first, but it is very distinctive in Hausa and worth practicing.

If I want to negate this sentence (“The mat in the room is not very soft”), how would I do it?

A natural negative version would be:

Tabarmar a cikin ɗaki ba ta da laushi sosai.
literally: “The mat in the room does not have much softness.”

Breakdown:

ba … da … – common way to say “not have / not be characterized by”
ba ta da laushi sosai – “it (fem.) does not have much softness / is not very soft.”

You could also say ba ta da laushi kwata-kwata (“not soft at all”) for stronger negation.