Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ni ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari. - I like to put honey in tea instead of sugar.

Ni is the independent/emphatic pronoun: I / me.
ina is part of the verb phrase, marking subject + aspect: roughly “I am …‑ing / I (usually) …”.

So:

Ina son in sa zuma… → a neutral “I like / I want to put honey…”
Ni ina son in sa zuma… → “Me, I like to put honey…”, with emphasis or contrast, e.g.:
- Ni ina son in sa zuma, kai kuma kana son sukari.
  → I like to put honey, but you like sugar.

You don’t have to say Ni; it’s there for emphasis, not for basic grammar.

Can I drop Ni and just say Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari?

Yes.

Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari.
is fully correct and is probably the most common everyday version.

Adding Ni just adds emphasis or contrast:

Ni ina son in sa zuma… – As for me, I like to put honey…
Ina son in sa zuma… – plain I like / I want to put honey…

Does ina son mean “I like” or “I want”?

The Hausa verb so covers several English ideas: like, love, and want (in the sense of desire).

With general preferences or habits, ina son is usually understood as “I like” / “I’m fond of”:
- Ina son shayi. → I like tea.
- Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi. → I like to put honey in tea (that’s my preference / habit).
With a specific, immediate desire, ina son can be closer to “I want”:
- Ina son in sha shayi yanzu. → I want to drink tea now.

Context usually makes it clear whether the nuance is more like or want. In your sentence (a general preference between honey and sugar), English “I like to put…” or “I prefer to put…” fits well.

Why is it son here and not so? What does the -n at the end of son do?

The basic word is so (like/love/want). When so is directly followed by another word, it often appears as son with a linking -n.

This -n is a linker (often called a genitive/linking consonant) that ties so to what comes next:

so
- abinci → son abinci (liking of food)
so
- tafiyar nan → son tafiyar nan (liking of this trip)
so
- in sa zuma → son in sa zuma

So ina son in sa zuma… is basically ina so in sa zuma…, but in normal speech and writing it appears as son because of that linking -n. They are the same underlying verb; the -n just helps connect it smoothly to the following word.

What exactly does ina express here—present continuous, habitual, or something else?

Ina is the imperfective form for 1st person singular, and it often covers:

ongoing actions (present continuous)
repeated / habitual actions
general states or preferences

With a stative verb like so, ina son is usually understood as a present state / general preference, similar to English simple present:

Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi.
≈ I (generally) like to put honey in tea.

For comparison:

Na so in sa zuma. – perfective: I liked / I wanted to put honey (at some point).
Zan so in sa zuma. – future: I will like / I will want to put honey.

What is the role of in in in sa zuma? Is it the same in that means “if”?

In this sentence, in is not “if”.

Here, in is a subjunctive / irrealis marker that introduces a subordinate clause after verbs of desire like so/son. Roughly, it can mean “that I should …” or function like “to …” in English:

Ina son in sa zuma.
≈ I like/want that I (should) put honey.
≈ I like/want to put honey.

There is also in in Hausa that means “if”, but it behaves differently:

In na sa zuma a cikin shayi, zan ji daɗi.
→ If I put honey in the tea, I will enjoy it.

So:

In your sentence: in = subjunctive (after son)
In conditional sentences: in = if

Same form, but different grammatical roles.

Could I say Ina son sa zuma a cikin shayi without in? Is that wrong?

As a direct replacement for ina son in sa zuma…, simply dropping in to get ina son sa zuma… is not standard and sounds wrong or very odd to most speakers.

You normally have three main patterns:

Verb + nominal object
- Ina son zuma a cikin shayi.
  → I like honey in tea.
  (Here zuma is a thing you like, not an action you want to do.)
Verb + in
- clause
(your sentence type)
- Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi.
  → I like / I want to put honey in tea.
Verb + impersonal / passive‑like clause
- Ina son a sa zuma a cikin shayi.
  → I like honey to be put in tea / I like it when honey is put in tea.

So, to express I like to put honey…, you really want pattern (2) with in:

Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi…

If you remove in, you should change the structure, and then the meaning also changes a bit.

Why is the verb sa used here and not something like zuba or saka?

Sa is a very general verb meaning roughly “put, place, set, wear”. It’s natural for putting something into or onto something else:

sa littafi a tebur – put a book on the table
sa takalmi – put on shoes
sa zuma a cikin shayi – put honey in tea

Other similar verbs:

zuba – pour, tip, pour out (especially liquids, grains)
- zuba shayi – pour (out) tea
- zuba zuma cikin shayi – pour honey into tea (also possible, especially if the honey is quite runny).
saka – insert, put into / put on (clothing), often with a sense of putting into/inside or switching on
- saka takalmi – put on shoes
- saka littafi a jaka – put a book in a bag.

In your sentence, sa zuma a cikin shayi is the most neutral and common way to say “put honey in tea.”
Using zuba would shift the image more towards pouring the honey; it’s still understandable and not wrong.

In a cikin shayi, why do we need both a and cikin? Could we say just one of them?

a cikin shayi literally combines:

a – a basic locative preposition: at, in, on
ciki – inside, interior
cikin – ciki
- linking -n: inside of

So a cikin shayi = “at/in the inside of tea”, i.e. in the tea.

You have a few options:

a cikin shayi – very common and explicit, “in(side) the tea”
cikin shayi – also fine: “inside tea / in the tea”
a shayi – more general; can mean in tea / with tea / at tea depending on context.

In your sentence, all of these are possible, but a cikin shayi is very clear:

Ina son in sa zuma a cikin shayi.
Ina son in sa zuma cikin shayi. (also natural)
Ina son in sa zuma a shayi. (still understandable, slightly less explicit about inside).

For a learner, a cikin X is a good, safe pattern for “in X / inside X”.

Where can maimakon go in the sentence? Must it come right before sukari?

Maimakon means “instead of / in place of” and usually comes directly before the thing or action being replaced.

In your sentence:

… zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari.
→ honey in tea instead of sugar.

This is the most natural placement: maimakon right before sukari, the item being replaced.

You do have some flexibility, especially if you want to highlight the contrast:

Ni ina son, maimakon sukari, in sa zuma a cikin shayi.
(I, instead of sugar, like to put honey in tea.) – more contrastive, more spoken‑style.

You can also use maimakon to introduce a clause:

Maimakon in sa sukari a cikin shayi, ina son in sa zuma.
→ Instead of putting sugar in tea, I like to put honey.

But within the original structure, maimakon should stay close to sukari:

… zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari. ✅ (best)
Putting maimakon far away from sukari without extra punctuation or re‑wording tends to sound awkward.

How would I say this sentence in the negative: “I don’t like to put honey in tea instead of sugar”?

Use the ba … ba negative around the verb phrase.

A clear, standard version:

Ba na son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari ba.
→ I don’t like to put honey in tea instead of sugar.

If you keep the emphatic Ni, you can say:

Ni ba na son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari ba.

In speech, people often contract ba na to ban, and then the final ba is frequently dropped:

Ban son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari. (very common in conversation)

For learning purposes, it’s good to master the full pattern ba … ba first:

Ba na son … ba. → I do not like …

Is there another natural way to say “I prefer honey in my tea to sugar” in Hausa?

Yes. A very natural way is to use fi so / fi son (“to like more / to prefer”):

Ina fi son zuma a cikin shayi fiye da sukari.
→ I prefer honey in tea more than sugar.
(literally: I more-like honey in tea than sugar.)
If you want to keep the action of putting honey, you can say:
Ina fi son in sa zuma a cikin shayi maimakon sukari.
→ I prefer to put honey in tea instead of sugar.

Both are good, everyday ways to express a preference, with (1) focusing on honey vs sugar as ingredients, and (2) focusing on the act of putting honey rather than sugar.