Learn Hardcore Hausa: Malami yana so ku yi tunani kan abin da kuke koya, ba ku rubuta kalmomi kawai ba. - The teacher wants you plural to think about what you are learning, not just write words.

Malami = teacher (no article; can be “a teacher” or “the teacher” from context)
yana = he is / is (doing) (3rd person singular masculine + progressive/imperfective marker)
so = to want / to like

Literally, Malami yana so is “A/the teacher is wanting/likes…”, but in normal English we just say “the teacher wants …”.

Hausa doesn’t distinguish strongly between “is wanting” and “wants” here; yana so usually corresponds to a present-time desire or preference, so translating as simple present “wants” is standard.

Why do we have ku yi tunani and not just ku tunani? What does yi do here?

In Hausa, many nouns of action are used with the general verb yi (to do, to make):

yi tunani = to think (literally “do thinking”)
yi magana = to speak (literally “do speech”)
yi aure = to marry (literally “do marriage”)

So:

ku = you (plural) as a subject pronoun
yi = do
tunani = thinking / thought

ku yi tunani therefore means “(that) you (pl.) think”, literally “you do thinking”.
You cannot say ✗ ku tunani; you need yi with tunani to make a verb phrase.

What exactly does tunani mean, and is it a verb or a noun?

tunani is a noun, not a verb.

Basic meaning: thought, thinking, reflection
Verb related to it: tuna = to remember, to recall, to think of

To express “to think” in the general sense of engaging your mind, Hausa typically uses:

yi tunani = to think / to reflect

So in the sentence, tunani is part of the phrase yi tunani (“to think”), functioning as a noun of action after yi.

What does kan mean here, and is it the same word as “head” (kai/kan)?

Yes, it’s the same root word as kai/kan = head, but here kan is used as a preposition meaning “about / concerning / regarding / on (the topic of)”.

In this sentence:

yi tunani kan abin da kuke koya
≈ think about what you are learning

Other examples:

mu yi magana kan aikinmu = let’s talk about our work
littafi kan tarihi = a book on history

So, kan here means “about”, not a literal “head”.

What does abin da mean, and how does it work in the sentence?

abin da is a very common relative construction:

abu = thing
abin = the thing (in construct form)
da = that/which (relative marker)

Together, abin da literally means “the thing that / that which”, and often corresponds to English “what” (in the sense of “the thing that …”).

In the sentence:

kan abin da kuke koya
≈ about the thing that you are learning
→ natural English: “about what you are learning”

You may also see it written as abinda in less formal spelling, but abin da (two words) is the clearer analysis.

How does kuke koya work? What is kuke, and why not ku na koya?

kuke is the 2nd person plural subject pronoun + imperfective marker in the relative form.

Compare:

Independent clause: ku na koya = you (pl.) are learning / you learn
Relative clause: kuke koya = you (pl.) are learning / you learn (but used after a relative word like da, abin da, etc.)

In more detail:

ku = you (plural)
-ke = imperfective marker used in relative clauses
koya = to learn / to teach (depending on context and objects; here it’s learn)

Because kuke koya is inside the relative clause introduced by abin da (“the thing that …”), the relative form (kuke) is used instead of ku na.

So:

abin da kuke koya = what you are learning / what you learn

What does koya mean exactly? Can it mean both “to learn” and “to teach”?

Yes, koya can mean “to learn” or “to teach”, depending on its construction:

koya without an indirect object often means “to learn”:
- Ina koya Hausa. = I am learning Hausa.
koya wa (somebody) (something) usually means “to teach (somebody) (something)”:
- Malami yana koya wa ɗalibai Hausa. = The teacher is teaching the students Hausa.

In abin da kuke koya, there is no explicit indirect object (“to someone”), and the context is students learning, so koya is understood as “to learn” here.

How does the negative ba ku rubuta … ba work? Why is ba used twice?

Hausa present/habitual negation often uses a “ba … ba” structure around the subject and verb (or clause):

ba
- subject (+ verb + rest of clause) + ba

In this sentence:

ba = negative particle
ku = you (plural)
rubuta = write
kalmomi kawai = words only / just words
final ba = closes the negative frame

So:

ba ku rubuta kalmomi kawai ba
≈ that you do not (just) write (only) words

This second clause is “the teacher wants you not to just write words”, so the whole chunk is inside the negative frame ba … ba.

Why is ku repeated in the second clause (ba ku rubuta kalmomi kawai ba) even though we already had ku yi tunani?

There are actually two separate subordinate clauses controlled by yane so:

Positive clause: ku yi tunani kan abin da kuke koya
→ that you think about what you are learning
Negative clause: ba ku rubuta kalmomi kawai ba
→ that you do not just write words

Each clause needs its own subject pronoun:

ku in the first clause (you think)
ku in the second clause (you do not write)

Hausa does not “carry over” the subject pronoun automatically from one finite clause to the next; you state it again.

What does rubuta mean here, and is it used with or without an object?

rubuta is a verb meaning “to write (down)”.

In this sentence:

rubuta kalmomi = to write words

So it’s used with a direct object (kalmomi = words).
Without an explicit object, rubuta can mean to write (something) in general:

Ina rubuta. = I am writing (something).
Ina rubuta wasiƙa. = I am writing a letter.

What is the meaning and function of kalmomi here? How is it related to kalma?

kalma = word (singular)
kalmomi = words (plural)

The plural here is formed by a common pattern where -a → -omi:

kalma → kalmomi (word → words)
(similar pattern in other nouns, though plural patterns vary a lot in Hausa)

In the sentence, kalmomi is the object of rubuta:

rubuta kalmomi = write words

What does kawai mean here, and how does it combine with the negative ba … ba?

kawai means “only, just, merely”.

kalmomi kawai = only words / just words

When you combine kawai with ba … ba, you often get the meaning “not only / not just”:

ba ku rubuta kalmomi kawai ba
literally: you do not write only words
natural English: “you don’t just write words”

So kawai focuses the restriction (“only words”), and the surrounding ba … ba negates that restriction, giving “not only …”.

How should we understand Malami without an article? Is it “a teacher” or “the teacher”?

Hausa does not use separate words for “a/an” or “the” like English does. Nouns appear bare, and context decides whether English will use “a” or “the”.

So Malami can be:

“a teacher” in a general sense (e.g. “A teacher wants you to …”), or
“the teacher” in a specific context known to speaker and listener.

In a classroom context, it’s natural to translate as “the teacher”, but grammatically it is just Malami = teacher.