Learn Hardcore Hausa: A daji wani saurayi ya ga raƙumi da biri guda ɗaya lokacin farauta. - In the bush a young man saw a camel and one monkey while hunting.

a is a basic preposition meaning “in, at, on” depending on context.
- a gida – at home
- a kasuwa – at the market
- a daji – in the bush / in the forest

It often corresponds to English “in/at,” but it’s a bit more general than any single English preposition.

What is the function of wani in wani saurayi? Is it like “a” or “some”?

wani is an indefinite determiner and can be translated as “a (certain)” / “some” / “one (particular)”:

wani saurayi – a (certain) young man
wani mutum – a certain man
wata mace – a certain woman (feminine form wata)

Compared with English:

Plain “a young man” would often be just saurayi in Hausa.
wani saurayi suggests “a particular young man, some young man (not specified which)”, slightly more specific or story‑like.

So wani is not required for indefiniteness, but adds the nuance “some / a certain.”

Why do we say wani saurayi ya ga…? If we already have saurayi as the subject, why add ya?

In Hausa, a subject pronoun before the verb is basically obligatory, even if you already mentioned the subject as a noun phrase.

wani saurayi ya ga… – a certain young man he-saw…

Here:

wani saurayi = full noun phrase (subject)
ya = 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun + tense/aspect marker
ga = verb “see” in perfective (past) form

The structure “[full subject] + [subject pronoun] + [verb]” is normal Hausa grammar, not redundancy. The pronoun carries information about person, gender, and tense/aspect.

Without ya, *wani saurayi ga raƙumi… is ungrammatical.

What exactly is ya ga? Why not just use gani for “see”?

The verb “to see” in Hausa is a bit irregular:

The dictionary form / verbal noun is gani (“seeing”).
The 3rd person singular perfective (simple past) is ya ga – “he saw.”

Some common forms:

ya ga raƙumi – he saw a camel (simple past / perfective)
yana ganin raƙumi – he is seeing / he sees a camel (progressive / habitual, using ganin, the linking form of gani)
zai ga raƙumi – he will see a camel

So in this sentence ya ga is the correct past tense form meaning “(he) saw.” *ya gani in this position would be wrong.

In raƙumi da biri, does da mean “and” or “with”?

Here da means “and” (a coordinator joining two nouns):

raƙumi da biri – a camel and a monkey

da also commonly means “with” or is used in “have” constructions:

na tafi da shi – I went with him
ina da kuɗi – I have money (literally “I am with money”)

The same word da does all these jobs; context tells you whether it is “and,” “with,” or part of “have.” In this sentence, since it is just linking two animals, it’s the “and” meaning.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before raƙumi and biri?

Hausa does not use separate words for “a” or “the” the way English does. Definiteness/indefiniteness is expressed by:

Context
Optional determiners like wani/wata/wasu
Genitive endings -n / -r, demonstratives, etc.

So:

raƙumi can mean “a camel” or “the camel,” depending on context.
biri can mean “a monkey” or “the monkey.”

In this sentence, context (a narrative about hunting) makes them naturally understood as “a camel and a monkey.”

What does biri guda ɗaya literally mean? Why are both guda and ɗaya used?

biri guda ɗaya is literally something like “monkey one single-unit”, and is best translated here as “one (single) monkey.”

Parts:

biri – monkey
guda – “piece, unit, single one”; a classifier that emphasizes individuality
ɗaya – the numeral “one”

Common patterns:

biri ɗaya – one monkey
biri guda – one single monkey
biri guda ɗaya – strongly emphatic “exactly one single monkey”

So guda ɗaya together adds emphasis: not just “a monkey,” but “one single monkey (only one).”

Can the words in biri guda ɗaya be put in a different order, like *guda ɗaya biri?

No. In Hausa, numbers and most modifiers come after the noun they describe. The normal order is:

NOUN + (guda) + numeral

So you can have:

biri ɗaya – one monkey
biri guda ɗaya – one single monkey

But *guda ɗaya biri is wrong in standard Hausa. The noun must come first, then the quantifier/number.

How would I say “two monkeys” or “three monkeys” instead of biri guda ɗaya?

The basic pattern is still NOUN + numeral (and often with the plural form of the noun):

Singular: biri – a monkey
Plural: birai – monkeys

You’ll commonly see:

birai biyu – two monkeys
birai uku – three monkeys

You might also hear biri biyu, but using the plural form (birai) with numbers is the standard textbook pattern. If you wanted to add the same “unit” feeling as guda, you can say:

birai guda biyu – two individual monkeys

What exactly is lokacin farauta grammatically?

lokacin farauta is a genitive (possessive-like) noun phrase:

lokaci – time
lokacin – “the time of …” (lokaci + genitive -n)
farauta – hunting / a hunt

So lokacin farauta is literally “the time of hunting,” which functions adverbially here as “during the hunt / while hunting / at hunting time.”

This kind of NOUN + -n + NOUN structure is very common:

ranar Lahadi – Sunday (the day of Sunday)
lokacin rani – dry season (the time of dryness)

Could we also say a lokacin farauta instead of just lokacin farauta? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say a lokacin farauta, and it is very natural:

a lokacin farauta – at the time of hunting / during the hunt

Difference:

lokacin farauta by itself is already understood as a time expression.
a lokacin farauta makes the locative preposition “at/in” explicit.

In practice, both are acceptable, and the meaning here is essentially the same. The sentence in your example just uses the bare genitive phrase as an adverbial.

Why is lokacin farauta at the end of the sentence? Could it come earlier?

Hausa word order is fairly flexible with time and place expressions. A typical “neutral” order is:

[Place] [Subject] [Pronoun] [Verb] [Object] [Time]

Exactly what we have:

A daji – place
wani saurayi – subject
ya ga raƙumi da biri guda ɗaya – verb + objects
lokacin farauta – time

You could also say, for example:

Lokacin farauta, wani saurayi ya ga raƙumi da biri guda ɗaya a daji.

That would emphasize the time more (“During the hunt, a certain young man…”). So yes, time/place phrases can be moved for emphasis, but putting lokacin farauta at the end is very normal.

Could we drop wani or guda ɗaya? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, dropping them is grammatically fine, but it changes nuance:

Dropping wani:
- A daji saurayi ya ga raƙumi da biri guda ɗaya…
- This is more like neutral “a young man / the young man” depending on context, without the “a certain” storytelling flavor.
Dropping guda ɗaya:
- A daji wani saurayi ya ga raƙumi da biri lokacin farauta.
- Now we only know “a camel and a monkey” in a general sense. We lose the emphasis that it was exactly one monkey.

So wani and guda ɗaya are not required for grammar, but they add specific nuance: “a certain young man” and “one single monkey.”

How do I pronounce the special letters ƙ and ɗ in words like raƙumi and guda ɗaya?

Hausa has special “implosive / ejective” consonants written with dots: ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ƴ. For English speakers:

ƙ (in raƙumi)
- Pronounced somewhat like a hard “k” made with a tighter closure and a little “pop” in the throat.
- It contrasts with normal k (e.g. kasa “ground, earth”) in many words.
ɗ (in ɗaya)
- Like “d”, but made with a slight inward gulp / implosive feeling, or a more tense “d.”
- It contrasts with normal d (e.g. doki “horse”).

At first you can approximate them as strong k and d, but it’s useful to learn the distinction, because minimal pairs exist where k ≠ ƙ and d ≠ ɗ change the meaning.