Learn Hardcore Hausa: A gaban asibiti an rubuta “gaggawa” don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri. - In front of the hospital “emergency” is written so that patients are brought quickly.

A – a preposition meaning “at / in / on” (location marker)
gaban – “the front (of)”; from gaba “front”, with the ending -n showing it’s linked to the next noun (“front of …”)
asibiti – “hospital”

So A gaban asibiti literally is “At the front of (the) hospital”, i.e. “In front of the hospital.”

Why is there A at the beginning of A gaban asibiti? Could we just say Gaban asibiti?

A is the locative preposition “at / in / on” and is needed to show you’re talking about a place, not just the noun “front”.

A gaban asibiti – “at the front of the hospital / in front of the hospital”
Gaban asibiti – “the front of the hospital” (as a noun phrase, not clearly locative in a sentence)

So in a full sentence describing where something is, you normally keep the A. Without A, you just have a noun phrase.

Why is there no word for “the” before asibiti? How do you know it means “the hospital” and not “a hospital”?

Hausa does not have separate words for “a / an / the” like English does. The noun asibiti can mean:

“a hospital”
“the hospital”

Context tells you which is intended. In this sentence, we naturally interpret it as “the hospital” because we’re talking about a specific place that has writing on it.

Definiteness in Hausa is often left to context, or shown by other means (such as demonstratives wannan asibitin “this hospital”, etc.), but not by an article like English “the”.

What does an rubuta mean, and why is it translated like “it is written / it has been written” even though there is no “it”?

an rubuta breaks down as:

an – a particle marking perfective aspect with an unspecified subject, often giving a passive-like meaning (“has been done”, “was done”)
rubuta – the verb “to write”

So an rubuta literally means something like:

“(someone) wrote (it)” or
“it has been written”

Because the subject is left unspecified, English usually translates it with a passive:

an rubuta “gaggawa” – “‘gaggawa’ has been written” / “the word ‘gaggawa’ is written”.

If you wanted to say explicitly “someone wrote it”, you’d normally use a subject:

wani ya rubuta shi – “someone wrote it.”

Is an rubuta past tense or present? Does it describe an action in the past or a current state?

Grammatically, an rubuta is perfective aspect (a completed action). However, when used about something like a sign, writing, or a rule, it often describes the current state resulting from that past action.

So:

an rubuta “gaggawa” – literally “‘gaggawa’ has been written”
In context it’s understood as “‘gaggawa’ is written (there)”, i.e. that’s what you can now see on the front of the hospital.

So it’s a completed action whose result is still visible now.

What exactly does gaggawa mean here, and what kind of word is it (noun, adjective, etc.)?

gaggawa is primarily a noun meaning “urgency / emergency”.

Common uses:

sashen gaggawa – “emergency department / emergency ward”
cikin gaggawa – “in an urgent way / urgently”

In this sentence, “gaggawa” is what is written on (or above) the hospital, like a label “Emergency”. So you can think of it here as a noun used as a label, equivalent to English “Emergency” on a hospital sign.

If gaggawa already means “emergency / urgency”, why do we also need da sauri (“quickly”) at the end?

They overlap in meaning, but they do slightly different jobs:

gaggawa – labels something as emergency / urgent (e.g. sashen gaggawa – emergency section)
da sauri – describes how the action is done: “quickly / with speed”

In this sentence:

“gaggawa” is the word written on the hospital, like the sign “Emergency”.
da sauri modifies the verb phrase a kai marasa lafiya: “that sick people be taken quickly.”

So the idea is: the hospital has “gaggawa” written on it (it’s the emergency section), so that sick people will be brought there quickly. Even if you dropped da sauri, the sentence would still make sense, but you’d lose the explicit adverb “quickly”.

What does marasa lafiya mean literally, and why is it plural?

marasa lafiya breaks down as:

mara lafiya – singular: “a sick person”, literally “a person who lacks health”
- mara – “one who lacks / one without”
- lafiya – “health / well-being”
marasa lafiya – plural: “sick people / patients” (literally “those who lack health”)

So in the sentence, marasa lafiya is plural because it’s talking about sick people (in general) being taken to the hospital quickly, not just one person.

What is don doing in don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri? How is it different from saboda?

don here is a conjunction that means “so that / in order that / for (the purpose that)”. It introduces a purpose clause:

don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri – “so that sick people may be taken quickly.”

Differences:

don – often expresses purpose / intention:
- Na je asibiti don in ga likita. – “I went to the hospital so that I could see the doctor.”
saboda – often expresses reason / cause:
- Na je asibiti saboda ciwon kai. – “I went to the hospital because of a headache.”

In many everyday contexts speakers mix don and domin, and sometimes even saboda, but the clearest distinction is purpose (don) vs reason (saboda).

What exactly is a kai in don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri? Is a a subject? Is kai a noun?

In a kai, we have:

a – a marker used with a verb to form a subjunctive / jussive with an unspecified subject, often giving a passive-like or impersonal meaning (“that X be done”).
kai – the verb meaning “to take / to deliver / to convey (to a place)”.

So a kai marasa lafiya is roughly:

“that sick people be taken” (without saying by whom), or
“that they take sick people” (with the subject left vague/impersonal, like English “you/they”).

It is not the noun kai “head” here; it’s the verbal form kai “to take (to a destination)”. The a is not a pronoun; it’s a verbal particle.

How would the meaning change if we used an explicit subject instead of a kai? For example, using su?

If you add an explicit subject, you lose the neutral, impersonal feel and instead point to specific people:

don su kai marasa lafiya da sauri – “so that they take sick people quickly”
don mu kai marasa lafiya da sauri – “so that we take sick people quickly”

By contrast:

don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri stays vague/impersonal:
“so that sick people be taken quickly / can be taken quickly (by whoever is supposed to do it).”

This impersonal use is common in instructions, rules, and general statements, similar to English:

“Patients are to be brought quickly.”
“Sick people should be taken quickly.”

What is the word order in don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri? Can you gloss it literally?

The word order is the normal Hausa order for such a clause:

don – so that / in order that
a – impersonal subjunctive marker
kai – take (verb)
marasa lafiya – sick people (object)
da sauri – quickly (adverbial phrase: “with speed”)

A rough word-for-word gloss:

don a kai marasa lafiya da sauri
“so-that [IMPERS.SUBJ] take sick-people with speed”

Natural English:

“so that sick people may be taken quickly”
“so that people can bring sick people quickly.”

What does da sauri literally mean, and can da be used like this with other words?

da sauri literally means “with speed”, and it functions as an adverb: “quickly / fast”.

da – “with / and”
sauri – “speed / quickness”

Yes, da is commonly used with nouns to make adverbial expressions:

da hankali – “with sense” → “carefully / sensibly”
da karfi – “with strength” → “forcefully / strongly”
da wasa – “with play” → “jokingly / playfully”

So da sauri fits this same pattern: noun + da → adverbial phrase.

Is there another common way to express “urgently” or “in an emergency way” instead of da sauri?

Yes, a very common expression is:

cikin gaggawa – literally “in urgency / in emergency”, used like “urgently / as an emergency”.

For example:

A kawo shi cikin gaggawa. – “Bring him urgently / as an emergency.”
A kai shi asibiti cikin gaggawa. – “Take him to the hospital as an emergency case.”

In your sentence, one could say instead:

… don a kai marasa lafiya cikin gaggawa.

That focuses more on the emergency / urgent nature of the situation, while da sauri emphasizes speed itself. Both are natural; they just nuance it slightly differently.