Likita ya yi wa Musa allura saboda ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani.

Ya is a subject pronoun: 3rd person singular masculine (“he / it”).

In Hausa, you normally need this kind of subject pronoun before a verb, even if a full noun subject (like Likita “doctor”) has already been mentioned. So:

• Likita ya yi… = The doctor he-did… (literally)
• Natural English: The doctor did… / The doctor gave…

Here ya also shows perfective aspect (completed action), which is why the sentence is understood as past: The doctor gave Musa an injection…, not is giving or will give.

Hausa very often uses the general verb yi (“to do, to make”) together with a noun to express actions that English might treat as a single verb.

So:

• yi allura literally: “do/make an injection”
• Natural meaning: “give an injection / give a shot”

This is similar to English patterns like:

• do business, make a phone call, give a hug

In Hausa, yi + noun bundles up into one idiomatic action. Yi allura is the normal way to say “give (someone) an injection” or “administer a shot.”

Wa marks the indirect object, roughly like English “to” or “for”.

• ya yi wa Musa allura
  literally: “he did to/for Musa injection”
  natural English: “he gave Musa an injection”

So the structure is:

• Subject: Likita (the doctor)
• Pronoun + verb: ya yi (he did)
• Indirect object (recipient): wa Musa (to Musa)
• Direct object (thing given/done): allura (injection)

Any time you have “do/give something to someone”, that “to someone” in Hausa is very often expressed with wa + person.

There are actually two separate clauses here, each needing its own verb:

1. Likita ya yi wa Musa allura
   – The doctor gave Musa an injection.

2. ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani
   – The malaria illness became severe.

Each clause has its own subject and verb:

• Clause 1 subject: Likita → verb: ya yi (allura)
• Clause 2 subject: ciwon maleriya → verb: ya yi (tsanani)

So ya yi is repeated because you have two actions:

• The doctor did an injection.
• The malaria did (became) severe.

It’s not redundant in Hausa; it’s just that both clauses are complete and each needs its own subject-pronoun + verb.

Ciwo means “illness, sickness, pain.”

When Hausa links two nouns in a “X of Y” relationship, the first noun often takes a genitive (possessive) ending:

• ciwo + -n → ciwon
• ciwon maleriya = the illness of malaria / malaria illness

So grammatically:

• ciwo = illness
• ciwon maleriya = malaria illness (illness caused by malaria)

This pattern is common:

• cunkoso (crowding) → cunkoson gari = city crowding
• gida (house) → gidan malam = the teacher’s house

Here -n is attached as -n / -r depending on the noun; with ciwo it surfaces as ciwon.

The subject of ya yi in that clause is ciwon maleriya (“the malaria illness”).

The pattern is:

• [Noun phrase] + [subject pronoun + verb]
• ciwon maleriya
  • ya yi tsanani

In Hausa, when you have a noun phrase followed immediately by a subject pronoun + verb, that pronoun normally refers back to that noun phrase as its subject.

So in this clause:

• Subject NP: ciwon maleriya
• Subject pronoun: ya (he/it)
• Verb phrase: yi tsanani (become severe)

It’s not referring to Likita or Musa here; the grammar and the immediate sequence make ciwon maleriya the subject.

Tsanani means “seriousness, severity”.

In Hausa, a very common pattern for describing change of state is:

• subject + ya yi + adjective/noun
  = subject became / turned (adjective)

So:

• ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani
  literally: “the malaria sickness did severity”
  natural English: “the malaria became severe / got worse”

This ya yi + quality word pattern replaces what English might do with “to become, to get, to turn”:

• rana ta yi zafi – the day became hot / it got hot
• halin sa ya yi muni – his behavior became bad

You could say other things (using zama “to become”, etc.), but ya yi tsanani is the most natural, simple way to say “it got very serious.”

In this sentence:

• saboda = because / due to / on account of

Structure:

• Likita ya yi wa Musa allura
  saboda
  ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani.

So it joins the reason clause to the main action:

• Main action: the doctor gave Musa an injection.
• Reason: because the malaria became severe.

Saboda is flexible; it often corresponds to:

• “because (of)”
• “due to”
• “on account of”

It can be followed by:

• a full clause:
  saboda ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani – because the malaria became severe
• or just a noun phrase (no verb):
  saboda ciwon maleriya – because of malaria

Here we have the fuller version with its own verb: ya yi tsanani.

Allura in Hausa primarily means “needle” – the physical object.

By extension, it also means “injection, shot”, especially in medical contexts, because injections are given with needles.

So in this sentence:

• ya yi wa Musa allura
  is understood as: “he gave Musa an injection / a shot,”
  not “he made a needle for Musa.”

Context makes it clear:

• With verbs like yi allura, bada allura and a patient (like Musa), it nearly always means “give an injection.”
• In other contexts, allura can just be “a needle” (e.g., sewing, medical equipment, etc.).

You can add a possessive pronoun to make it explicit that the illness is his (Musa’s), for example:

• saboda ciwon maleriyar sa ya yi tsanani.
  = because his malaria illness became severe.

Breakdown:

• ciwo-n maleriya-r sa
  sickness-of malaria-of his
  → “his malaria illness”

So the full sentence could be:

• Likita ya yi wa Musa allura saboda ciwon maleriyar sa ya yi tsanani.

In normal conversation, Hausa speakers might omit the possessive (as in the original sentence) because it’s obvious that the malaria belongs to Musa from context.

Yes, you could say it in slightly different but natural ways, for example:

1. Likita ya yi wa Musa allurar magani saboda ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani.

   • “The doctor gave Musa a medicine injection because the malaria became severe.”
   • allurar magani = “medicine injection / injection of medicine”

2. Likita ya yi wa Musa allura domin ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani.

   • Using domin instead of saboda; also means “because / in order that / due to”.

3. Saboda ciwon maleriya ya yi tsanani, likita ya yi wa Musa allura.

   • Reason clause first: “Because the malaria became severe, the doctor gave Musa an injection.”

All of these keep the same core grammar patterns you see in the original sentence: yi allura, wa Musa, a reason word (saboda/domin), and ya yi tsanani.