Baba yana samun albashi ƙarshen wata, amma ba ya ɓata shi.

yána samun (usually written yana samun) is the imperfective / continuous form of samu “to get, receive, obtain”.

• yana samun albashi ≈ “he gets a salary / he is getting a salary (regularly)”
  • This can be habitual (“he usually gets / he gets (every month)”)
  • Or ongoing (“he is in the process of getting” – depending on context, but here it’s clearly habitual).

By contrast:

• ya samu albashi = perfective: “he got a salary / he has received his salary (on that occasion)”.

So:

• yana samun → ongoing or repeated action
• ya samu → completed action, usually once or in a specific time frame

yana is actually two morphemes fused in writing:

• ya = “he” (3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun)
• na = continuous / imperfective aspect marker

So:

• ya + na → yana = “he (is) [doing something / does something habitually]”

You cannot say “ya samun” in standard Hausa; you need the aspect marker na for this tense/aspect:

• yana samun albashi = he (regularly) gets / is getting a salary
• ya samu albashi = he got / has gotten a salary (completed event)

ƙarshen wata literally means “the end of (the) month”.

Breakdown:

• ƙarshe = “end, finish”
• -n = linker “of” (attaches to the first noun)
• wata = “month”

So ƙarshe + n + wata → ƙarshen wata = “the end of the month”.

It functions as a time expression, like English “(at) the end of the month”.

Both forms are possible, but they behave slightly differently in style:

• ƙarshen wata (without a) is a bare time expression:

  • Very common in Hausa: time expressions often appear without a preposition.
  • Example: zai zo gobe – “he will come tomorrow”.

• a ƙarshen wata adds the preposition a (“in / at / on”):

  • Literally “at the end of the month”.

In your sentence:

• Baba yana samun albashi ƙarshen wata…
• Baba yana samun albashi a ƙarshen wata…

Both are acceptable and would be understood as “Baba gets his salary at the end of the month.” The version without a is very natural and common.

ba ya ɓata shi is the negative imperfective (negative continuous / habitual).

Structure:

• ba = negative particle
• ya = “he”
• (implicit na in the imperfective form ya-na → yana, but in the negative ba ya already functions as “he doesn’t …”)
• ɓata = “to waste, spoil”
• shi = “it / him” (object pronoun)

So ba ya ɓata shi = “he does not waste it / he doesn’t waste it”.

Compare:

• yana ɓata shi = he (habitually) wastes it / is wasting it
• ba ya ɓata shi (ba) = he does not waste it (final ba is often dropped in imperfective negatives in speech and informal writing)

Versus perfective negation:

• ya ɓata shi = he wasted it
• bai ɓata shi ba = he did not waste it (on that occasion)

So your sentence’s ba ya ɓata shi is “he doesn’t (habitually) waste it,” matching the idea of a regular salary.

shi here is an object pronoun meaning “it / him” and it refers back to albashi (“salary”).

• ba ya ɓata shi = “he does not waste it” (where “it” = salary).

You can say:

• ba ya ɓata albashi – “he does not waste salary / money”

but there is a nuance:

• ɓata albashi sounds a bit more general or nonspecific (“wasting salary (as a type of thing)”).
• ɓata shi, after albashi has been introduced, is clearer and more natural as “he doesn’t waste his salary (the one just mentioned).”

Also, albashi is grammatically masculine in Hausa, so the pronoun referring back to it is shi (masc. sg.), even though in English we would say “it”.

Baba in Hausa literally means “father / dad”, but it can function in a few ways:

1. As a kin term:

   • Baba = “father / dad”
   • Babanmu = “our father”
   • Baba na = “my father” (often shortened in speech)

2. As a proper name or respectful title:

   • Many people are called “Baba” as a nickname or title, especially older men, community leaders, or in a family setting.

In your sentence “Baba yana samun albashi…”, context decides:

• It could mean “(My) dad gets his salary…” if spoken by a child.
• Or it could be referring to a man commonly known as Baba (like a name/title).

There is nothing in the grammar that forces it to be “my father”; it just means “father/Baba”, used as a subject.

They are related but not identical:

• albashi = salary, wages, usually regular pay from a job (often monthly).

  • Example: Ina jiran albashi – “I’m waiting for my salary.”

• kuɗi = money in general (cash, funds, wealth).

  • Example: ban da kuɗi – “I don’t have money.”

So in your sentence:

• yana samun albashi ƙarshen wata = “he receives his salary at the end of the month”
  • It is specifically about pay for work, not just money in general.

ɓata has a broader meaning than just “waste.” Core senses:

• to spoil, ruin, damage, make bad
• by extension, to waste (time, money, opportunities)

Some common collocations:

• ɓata albashi / kuɗi – to waste salary / money
• ɓata lokaci – to waste time
• ɓata rai – to upset someone, to annoy / anger (lit. “spoil the mind”)
• ɓata suna – to ruin someone’s reputation

In your sentence, with albashi, the natural translation is “to waste” his salary: “but he doesn’t waste it.”

Yes, they are different sounds, and Hausa marks them with special letters:

1. ɓ vs b

• b: ordinary “b” as in English “bat”.
• ɓ: an implosive b – you slightly “pull in” air as you voice it.
  • It’s not found in English; learners often approximate it with a somewhat “harder” b.

Example pair:

• bata (if it existed) ≠ ɓata (“to spoil, waste”).

2. ƙ vs k

• k: ordinary “k” as in “cat”.
• ƙ: glottalized k (ejective). The glottis closes and “pops” the sound out.
  • Again, not native to English; learners often pronounce ƙ similar to a strong k.

Example:

• kare = “dog”
• ƙare = “to finish, be finished” (different word entirely)

So ɗ, ɓ, ƙ, ts, ky, gy etc. are important in Hausa spelling because they distinguish meanings.

Yes. To make the “every month” idea very explicit, you can add kowace / kowane:

• Baba yana samun albashi a ƙarshen kowane wata, amma ba ya ɓata shi.

Here:

• kowane = “each / every” (masc.)
• wata = “month” (usually treated as feminine, but kowane wata is very commonly heard in speech; more strictly, kowace wata would match the feminine gender.)

Meaning: “Baba receives a salary at the end of every month, but he doesn’t waste it.”

The original sentence already implies regularity through yana samun albashi ƙarshen wata; adding kowane/kowace just makes it explicit.

Grammatically, “ba ya ɓata” is a complete structure (“he does not waste / spoil”), but:

• In natural speech, when you have a specific object like albashi mentioned earlier, Hausa almost always keeps the object pronoun:
  • … amma ba ya ɓata shi. – “… but he doesn’t waste it.”

If you say only “ba ya ɓata” with no object, it tends to sound like:

• “he doesn’t waste (things)” in general,
• or it feels incomplete/elliptical (“he doesn’t waste [it/them]…” with the object understood from context).

So in a normal, careful sentence referring back to albashi, “ɓata shi” is the most natural choice.