Learn Hardcore Hausa: Baba yana fusata idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi. - Father gets annoyed when the children do not follow the rules in the street.

In real conversation, if you say Baba yana fusata…, listeners will often understand it as “Dad gets angry…” (your or someone’s father) from context.
If you need to be explicit:
- Baba na – my father
- Babanmu – our father

But Baba on its own is perfectly natural as “Dad/Father” in a general statement like this.

What does yana do here? How is yana fusata different from ya fusata?

Yana is the 3rd person masculine continuous/imperfective form: roughly “he is (doing).”

Baba yana fusata…
→ “Dad gets angry / is getting angry (whenever this happens).”
It describes a current or habitual tendency.
Baba ya fusata
→ “Dad got angry.”
This is perfective, a one‑time completed event in the past.

So in the sentence, yana fusata fits well because we’re talking about what he usually does whenever the children don’t obey the law.

What is the difference between fusata and fushi? Could the sentence use fushi instead?

fusata is a verb: “to get angry / to become angry,” often the inchoative idea (the change into anger).
- Baba yana fusata – “Dad gets angry / is becoming angry.”
fushi is more like a noun / state: “anger, sulking, being upset.”
It’s often used with yi “to do/make”:
- Baba yana fushi – “Dad is (in a state of) anger / he is sulking.”
- Baba ya yi fushi – “Dad got angry.”

Your sentence with fusata focuses on the reaction every time the condition is met:
Baba yana fusata idan… → “Dad gets (becomes) angry when…”

You could say Baba yana fushi idan…, but that would sound more like: “Dad is (in a state of) anger whenever…,” slightly more about his state than the moment of getting angry.

Does idan mean “if” or “when” here?

Idan can mean both “if” and “when/whenever”, depending on context.

In this sentence:

Baba yana fusata idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi.

it is most naturally understood as “when / whenever”:

“Dad gets angry when children don’t obey the law in the street.”
Implied: every time this situation happens.

If you want to make a more hypothetical “if” feel very clear, you might add things like “to” or change context, but in everyday speech idan already covers both “if” and “when (whenever).”

What exactly is yara? Is it an irregular plural?

Yes. Yara means “children” and is an irregular plural:

yaro – boy / male child
yarinya – girl / female child
yara – children (boys and/or girls)

So yara by itself just means “children” and is the standard, very common plural form.

How does the negative ba sa work with yara? Why isn’t it just yara sa… or something similar?

The structure here is:

yara – the noun subject “children”
ba sa – 3rd person plural negative continuous: “they are not (doing)”

In Hausa, it’s very common to have a noun subject plus a pronoun again:

yara suna bin doka – “children, they are following the law”
yara ba sa bin doka – “children, they are not following the law”

So ba sa agrees with yara:

suna – they are (positive)
ba sa – they are not (negative)

This repetition (yara + suna/ba sa) is normal Hausa grammar and not redundant the way it would sound in English.

What does bin doka literally mean, and why is it bin and not bi?

The verb is bi – “to follow, to obey.”
When it comes before a noun like doka (“law”), it typically appears as bin, which is bi + ‑n, where ‑n is a linker that connects it to the following noun.

So:

bi doka – “to follow/obey the law” (verb + object in a simple form)
bin doka – “following/obedience to the law” (more like “the following of law”)

In expressions like ba sa bin doka, you often get this bin + object pattern, which you can think of as “they are not in the act/state of following the law.”

Semantically, bin doka = “obeying the law.”

What does a titi mean exactly? Is it “in the street” or “on the street”? Could I say something else instead?

a is a general locative preposition: “in, at, on,” depending on context.
titi is “street, road.”

So a titi is best translated as “on the street / in the street / on the road.”

Other common options:

a kan titi – literally “on top of the street,” often also translated “on the road / on the street,” sometimes a bit more specific about being on the surface/roadway.
a hanya – “on the way / on the road (in general)”, slightly broader, can refer to route or journey, not just an actual paved street.

Your sentence with a titi is natural and idiomatic.

If I want to say “He gets angry when a child does not obey the law,” how do I change yara ba sa bin doka to singular?

Change the subject to singular and adjust the pronoun:

yaro – boy / child (male)
ba ya – he is not (3rd person singular masculine, negative continuous)
bi/bin doka – obey the law

A natural version:

Baba yana fusata idan yaro ba ya bin doka a titi.
→ “Dad gets angry when a child does not obey the law in the street.”

If you specifically mean a girl:

Baba yana fusata idan yarinya ba ta bin doka a titi.
(ba ta is the 3rd person singular feminine negative continuous.)

Is there a more explicitly “habitual” way to say “Dad usually gets angry when…” instead of Baba yana fusata…?

Yes. Hausa often uses kan (or kan + verb) to show habit / tendency:

Baba kan fusata idan yara ba sa bin doka a titi.
→ “Dad tends to get angry / usually gets angry when children don’t obey the law in the street.”

Differences:

Baba yana fusata… – can already imply habit here because of idan, but grammatically it’s a general continuous/imperfective.
Baba kan fusata… – more clearly and strongly habitual, like “he is in the habit of getting angry when…”