Learn Hardcore Hausa: Jiya bayan jarabawa wasu dalibai sun ji takaici. - Yesterday after the exam some students felt frustrated.

Hausa often does not use a direct equivalent of English "the", so:
- bayan jarabawa = after (the) exam, context decides whether it’s the or an.
You can expand it, for example:
- bayan jarabawar su – after their exam
- bayan jarabawar yau – after today’s exam

What does "wasu" do in "wasu dalibai"?

"wasu" is an indefinite plural determiner meaning "some".

dalibai = students
wasu dalibai = some students

Compare:

Dalibai sun ji takaici. – Students felt frustrated (could mean “the students” generally).
Wasu dalibai sun ji takaici. – Some (certain) students felt frustrated (not all of them).

So "wasu" narrows it down to an unspecified subset.

Why is "dalibai" used here and not "dalibi"?

"dalibi" is singular = a (male) student,
"dalibai" is plural = students.

In this sentence:

wasu dalibai = some students (clearly plural)
This matches the verb subject pronoun sun (they).

If you were talking about one student, you’d say:

Jiya bayan jarabawa wani dalibi ya ji takaici.
Yesterday after the exam a (certain) student felt frustrated.

What does "sun" mean in "sun ji takaici"? Why is it needed?

"sun" is a 3rd person plural subject + perfective marker:

su = they
-n = perfective aspect marker (often written together as sun)

So sun ji means roughly "they have felt / they felt".

In Hausa, you cannot normally just say "ji takaici" without a subject marker. The basic pattern is:

sun ji – they felt / they have felt
ya ji – he felt
ta ji – she felt
na ji – I felt

So "sun" tells us who did the action and that it’s in the perfective (completed) aspect.

What does "ji" mean here? I thought it meant "to hear".

"ji" is a very flexible verb that can mean:

to hear – e.g. Na ji shi. = I heard him.
to feel/sense (physically or emotionally) – e.g.
- Na ji zafi. = I felt pain / I was in pain.
- Sun ji takaici. = They felt frustrated / disappointed.

In "sun ji takaici", "ji" expresses experiencing a feeling rather than hearing something. English uses “feel” here; Hausa keeps ji and then the noun for the emotion:

ji + takaici = to feel frustration
ji + daɗi = to feel pleasure / to be happy / to enjoy
ji + zafi = to feel pain

Is "takaici" an adjective like frustrated, or a noun?

"takaici" is a noun meaning frustration / disappointment / annoyance (the emotional state).

Hausa often expresses emotions with:

verb "ji" (to feel) + emotion noun

So:

sun ji takaici – they felt frustration → they felt frustrated / were disappointed
na ji daɗi – I felt pleasure → I was happy / I enjoyed it

There is not a direct one-word adjective “frustrated” here; instead, Hausa describes having/feeling the emotion.

How would I say “didn’t feel frustrated” instead of “felt frustrated”?

To negate "sun ji takaici", you use bà … ba and change the verb form:

Sun ji takaici. – They felt frustrated.
Ba su ji takaici ba. – They didn’t feel frustrated.

Structure for 3rd person plural negative perfective:

Ba su + [verb in perfective] + ba.

Examples:

Sun ga sakamakon. → Ba su ga sakamakon ba.
They saw the result. → They didn’t see the result.
Sun ji takaici. → Ba su ji takaici ba.
They felt frustrated. → They didn’t feel frustrated.

Why is the English translation often “after the exam” even though there’s no “the” in "bayan jarabawa"?

Hausa generally doesn’t use separate words for “the” and “a/an” like English does. Nouns are usually bare, and context tells you whether you should translate with “the” or “an”.

jarabawa can be:
- the exam
- an exam
  depending on what makes sense in context.

So bayan jarabawa can be:

after the exam (a specific exam everyone knows about)
after an exam (any exam, non-specific)

The Hausa phrase itself stays the same.

Could I say "bayan da jarabawa" or "bayan da muka yi jarabawa" instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can expand "bayan jarabawa" for more explicit structure:

bayan jarabawa
- after the exam (simple prepositional phrase)
bayan da muka yi jarabawa
- literally: after that we did the exam → after we took the exam
bayan mun yi jarabawa (another common pattern)
- also after we took the exam

Differences:

"bayan jarabawa" is short, natural, and enough when context is clear.
"bayan da muka yi jarabawa" (or "bayan mun yi jarabawa") is more explicit and slightly heavier; it’s like a full “after-clause” in English.

In your sentence, bayan jarabawa is the most natural, simplest choice.

How would the sentence change if it were one student rather than some students?

For one (unspecified) student, you’d normally use "wani dalibi" (masc.) or "wata daliba" (fem.), and the verb marker becomes singular:

Jiya bayan jarabawa wani dalibi ya ji takaici.
Yesterday after the exam a (certain) male student felt frustrated.
Jiya bayan jarabawa wata daliba ta ji takaici.
Yesterday after the exam a (certain) female student felt frustrated.

Compare to the original:

Jiya bayan jarabawa wasu dalibai sun ji takaici.
(plural subject marker "sun")

Is "jiya" always “yesterday”, or can it mean “the other day” or “recently”?

"jiya" most directly means “yesterday”, i.e. the day before today.

In casual conversation, speakers might sometimes stretch it slightly to refer to very recent past time, but the core meaning is specifically the previous calendar day.

For looser “the other day / recently”, you’d more naturally hear things like:

kwanan nan – recently / these days
a kwanakin baya – in past days / some days ago

What is the basic word order in this sentence, and is it the normal Hausa order?

Let’s break it down:

Jiya – time adverb (yesterday)
bayan jarabawa – prepositional phrase (after the exam)
wasu dalibai – subject (some students)
sun ji – verb complex (they felt)
takaici – object/complement noun (frustration)

If we strip off the time and prepositional phrase:

Wasu dalibai sun ji takaici.
Subject – Verb – Object (SVO)

Hausa default word order in simple sentences is SVO, just like English. Time and place expressions often come before the subject, as in this sentence, but the core structure remains SVO.