Breakdown of Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta, kuma wannan yana da tasiri mai kyau.
Questions & Answers about Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta, kuma wannan yana da tasiri mai kyau.
Kan (or yakan, sukan, etc. with a pronoun) is a marker of habitual action in Hausa.
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta
literally: A lawyer habitually helps the poor for free.
So kan + verb usually means something like:
- “usually / generally / often / habitually does X”
It comes before the main verb:
- Ina taimaka – I am helping / I help
- Ina kan taimaka – I usually help (less common, more literal)
- Ni kan taimaka – I (habitually) help
- Lauya kan taimaka – A lawyer (habitually) helps
In this sentence, kan tells us we are talking about what lawyers generally do, not a one-time action.
Wa is a preposition that marks the indirect object, roughly “to / for” in English.
- taimaka – to help
- taimaka wa talakawa – help the poor people (literally: help to the poor)
So the pattern is:
- taimaka wa [person] – help [person]
You may also hear taimaka ma instead of taimaka wa in some dialects; both fill the “to/for” function before the person you are helping.
Talakawa means “poor people / common people / the masses” and is plural.
- talaka – a poor person, a commoner
- talakawa – poor people, commoners
So:
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talaka – A lawyer (habitually) helps a poor person
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa – A lawyer (habitually) helps poor people / the poor
In your sentence, it is talking about poor people in general, so the plural talakawa is used.
Kyauta can mean both “a gift” and “for free / free of charge”, depending on context.
Here:
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta
means: The lawyer helps poor people *for free.*
So kyauta is functioning adverbially: it describes how the help is given (without payment), not what is being given.
Other examples:
- Na ba shi kyauta. – I gave it to him as a gift.
- Suna koyarwa kyauta. – They teach for free.
Kuma is a coordinating conjunction; here it mostly means “and”, sometimes with a sense of “and also / moreover”.
Your sentence:
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta, kuma wannan yana da tasiri mai kyau.
→ The lawyer helps the poor for free, *and this has a good effect.*
So kuma:
- connects two clauses, like “and”
- can also add a nuance of “in addition / furthermore”
It usually comes near the beginning of the second clause it is joining.
Wannan means “this”, and here it refers back to the whole idea in the first clause:
- The action: the lawyer helping poor people for free.
So:
- wannan – this (action / situation) of helping the poor for free
- wannan yana da tasiri mai kyau – this has a good effect.
In spoken English we might say:
- And *that has a good impact.*
Yes. Yana da literally means “he/it is with”, but in Hausa this structure is commonly used to express possession or having:
- ya na da tasiri – he/it has influence
- yana da tasiri mai kyau – he/it has a good effect
Breaking it down:
- yana – he/it is (imperfective form of to be for masculine singular)
- da – with
Together, yana da [noun phrase] = “he/it has [noun phrase]”.
In your sentence:
- wannan yana da tasiri mai kyau
→ this has a good effect / impact.
Tasiri means “influence, impact, effect”.
Tasiri mai kyau is a noun phrase where mai kyau behaves like an adjective phrase describing the noun:
- tasiri – effect
- mai kyau – good (literally “one that has goodness”)
- tasiri mai kyau – a good effect / a positive impact
In Hausa, a common pattern is:
- [Noun] + mai + [good/positive quality]
Examples:
- mutum mai kirki – a good / kind person
- aiki mai wahala – a difficult job
- tasiri mai kyau – a good effect
In Hausa, mai + (good/positive/negative quality) is a standard way to form a descriptive phrase that corresponds to an adjective in English.
- mai kyau – good
- mai tsada – expensive
- mai sauƙi – easy / simple
- mai muni – bad / ugly
So tasiri mai kyau is “effect (that is) good”.
Da more often links nouns or acts like “and / with”, not as the typical marker for adjectives:
- ruwa da leda – water and a plastic bag
- ya zo da abokinsa – he came with his friend
So tasiri mai kyau is the natural, idiomatic form; tasiri da kyau would not mean “good effect.”
Lauya by itself here is being used in a generic sense: “a lawyer / lawyers in general.”
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta
→ A lawyer (in general) helps poor people for free.
If you say lauyan (with -n), you’re making it definite and linking it to something specific:
- lauyan nan – this (particular) lawyer
- lauyan da ka sani – the lawyer that you know
So:
- Lauya kan taimaka… – Lawyers (as a type) often help…
- Lauyan nan kan taimaka… – This particular lawyer often helps…
The sentence is talking about lawyers’ behavior in general, so the bare form Lauya is appropriate.
Yes, yakan is very common, and in many contexts you’ll hear yakan rather than kan alone.
Patterns:
- ya kan taimaka or yakan taimaka – he usually helps
- suna kan taimaka or sukan taimaka – they usually help
In your sentence:
- Lauya kan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta
could also be expressed as - Lauya yakan taimaka wa talakawa kyauta
Both express habitual action; yakan makes the subject “he” explicit (seeing a lawyer as “he”), while kan with a bare noun subject is a bit more general or impersonal. In practice, both forms are heard.