Learn Hardcore Hausa: Injiniya kan samu gayyata zuwa makaranta domin ta ba dalibai shawara kan fannonin aiki. - An engineer usually gets invitations to school so that she can give students advice about fields of work.

Injiniya ta samu gayyata. – The engineer got an invitation (this time).
Injiniya kan samu gayyata. – The engineer usually gets invitations (as a habit).

There is another kan later in the sentence: shawara kan fannonin aiki. Is that the same word?

No, they are two different words that just happen to look the same in writing.

kan after Injiniya = habitual marker (usually, tends to).
kan in shawara kan fannonin aiki = a preposition meaning about / regarding / on (the topic of).

So:

shawara kan fannonin aiki
= advice *about fields of work / careers*.

These two kan have different functions and different tones in spoken Hausa, even though they are spelled the same in standard orthography.

Why is the pronoun ta used after domin, and what does it refer to?

Ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (she).

In domin ta ba dalibai shawara..., the ta refers back to injiniya (the engineer), and it is:

feminine (so the engineer here is thought of as female),
the subject of the verb ba (to give).

Literally:

domin ta ba dalibai shawara
= so that *she may give the students advice*.

In Hausa, a new clause (like the one after domin) normally needs its own subject pronoun, even if that subject was already mentioned. So you don’t just say domin ba dalibai shawara; you must say domin ta ba dalibai shawara (or ya if the engineer is male).

I thought ba meant “not”. How can ba here mean “to give”?

Hausa has two different words spelled ba:

ba (verb) = to give
- ta ba dalibai shawara – she gives the students advice.
ba (negative particle) = part of a negation pattern
- ba ta ba dalibai shawara ba – she does not give the students advice.

They are unrelated in meaning; learners just have to rely on context:

After a subject pronoun and followed by a direct object (ta ba dalibai...), it is almost always “give”.
In full negative constructions (ba ... ba), it’s the negative particle.

Why doesn’t the sentence say “is invited” (passive), but instead samu gayyata “gets an invitation”?

Hausa very often prefers active verbs + a verbal noun instead of an English-style passive.

samu gayyata
= to get an invitation
(literally: samu = get, gayyata = invitation)

So:

Injiniya kan samu gayyata zuwa makaranta...
≈ The engineer is usually invited to the school...

Another very common way to express the same idea is:

Ana kan gayyatar injiniya zuwa makaranta...
The engineer is usually being invited to school...
(more explicitly passive/impersonal: “they usually invite the engineer”)

But samu gayyata is a very natural, idiomatic way to say “receive an invitation” in Hausa.

What does domin mean, and how is it different from don?

Domin (often pronounced don) introduces a purpose or reason. Here it means “in order to / so that”.

... zuwa makaranta domin ta ba dalibai shawara ...
= ... to the school *in order to give the students advice ...*

Points to note:

Domin
- a full clause (with a subject and verb):
  - domin ta ba dalibai shawara – so that she may give the students advice.
In everyday speech, speakers often say don instead of domin; in writing, domin is more formal/standard.

It can also function more like “because of / for the sake of” when followed directly by a noun:

domin dalibai – for the students / for the sake of the students.

Why do we say zuwa makaranta? Could we just say makaranta without zuwa?

Zuwa is a preposition meaning to / towards.

gayyata zuwa makaranta
= an invitation *to (the) school*

With verbs or nouns of motion (go, come, travel, invitation to somewhere), Hausa normally uses zuwa before the destination:

zuwa gida – to home
zuwa asibiti – to the hospital
zuwa makaranta – to school

You can omit zuwa only in some very specific, fixed expressions; here zuwa makaranta is the normal, natural form. Saying just gayyata makaranta would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in standard Hausa.

How do I know whether Injiniya means “an engineer” or “the engineer”?

Hausa does not have separate words for “a/an” and “the”. The bare noun Injiniya can mean:

an engineer (indefinite / generic), or
the engineer (definite), depending on context.

So:

Injiniya kan samu gayyata...
could be understood as:
- An engineer usually gets invited... (generic: any such engineer), or
- The engineer usually gets invited... (a specific engineer known from context).

Definiteness is often shown indirectly, e.g. by:

possessive or genitive endings,
demonstratives (wannan injiniya – this engineer),
previously established context in the conversation.

What is dalibai, and why doesn’t Hausa say “to the students” with a preposition?

Dalibai is the plural of:

dalibi – male student
daliba – female student

So:

dalibai = students (mixed or unspecified gender)

In ta ba dalibai shawara:

ta = she
ba = gives
dalibai = students (direct object)
shawara = advice (second object)

Hausa does not need a preposition like “to” here. Ba (give) typically takes two direct objects:

the recipient (who gets something)
the thing given

So the structure is:

ta ba [recipients] [thing]
= she gave [recipients] [thing]

English: she gave *the students advice
Hausa: *ta ba dalibai shawara (no “to”).

What does shawara mean exactly, and can it be plural?

Shawara means advice, counsel, consultation. It behaves like a mass/collective noun, so it is usually not pluralized in ordinary usage.

ta ba dalibai shawara
= she gave the students advice (not “an advice”)

You can make plural forms like shawarwari, but that often sounds more like separate pieces or sessions of advice, and is less common in everyday speech. For a normal sentence like this, shawara (singular) is the standard, natural choice.

How is fannonin aiki formed, and what does that structure mean?

Fannonin aiki is a genitive (possessive/“of”) construction:

fanni – field, area, branch (especially of study or work)
fannonin – plural form in the genitive/construct state
(fanni → fannonin = “the fields/areas of ...”)
aiki – work, job, employment

Put together:

fannonin aiki
= fields of work / areas of employment / career fields

This is a very common pattern:

littafin ɗalibi – the student’s book / book of the student
fannonin kimiyya – fields of science
fannonin aiki – fields of work

What tense or time reference does the whole sentence have? How would I say “used to be invited” in the past?

Kan in Injiniya kan samu gayyata... expresses a general/habitual action; in the absence of any time marker, it is understood as present habitual:

The engineer *usually gets invitations...* (these days / generally).

To talk about a regular habit in the past (“used to”), Hausa often combines past context with the habitual kan, or uses other time expressions. For example:

A da, injiniya kan samu gayyata zuwa makaranta...
In the past, the engineer used to get invited to the school...
Tuni ta daina; amma a da injiniya kan samu gayyata...
She has stopped now; but before, the engineer used to get invitations...

So kan itself is neutral; context and additional time words like a da (formerly, in the past) make it clear that the habit was in the past rather than now.