Learn Hardcore Hausa: Rahoton da za mu rubuta yana kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki. - The report we will write is about the effect of education on the economy.

The -n on Rahoton is the Hausa definite / linker suffix. Here it marks definiteness, roughly like “the report” rather than “a report”.

Key points:

Rahoto = report (indefinite)
Rahoton = the report / that report (definite)

The same -n (or -r, depending on the word) is also used to link a noun to something that follows (like a relative clause), which is what is happening here before da za mu rubuta. So Rahoton da… is “the report that…”.

In Rahoton da za mu rubuta, what does da do? Does it mean “and” or “that”?

In this sentence, da is a relative marker, not the conjunction “and”.

As a relative marker, da = that / which / who in English relative clauses.
- Rahoton da za mu rubuta = “the report that we will write”.

So the structure is:

Rahoton (the report)
da (that/which)
za mu rubuta (we will write)

Hausa uses da very widely to introduce relative clauses. Context tells you whether da means “and” or “that/which”.

What exactly does za mu rubuta mean, and why do we need za?

Za mu rubuta means “we will write” (future time).

Breakdown:

mu = we (subject pronoun)
rubuta = to write
za = future marker, roughly “will / going to”

So:

mu rubuta (without za) would just be a bare verb phrase “we write / we to write” (it needs more context or an aspect marker).
za mu rubuta clearly marks future: “we will write”.

Typical pattern for future:

zan rubuta (I will write)
za ka rubuta (you masc. will write)
za ki rubuta (you fem. will write)
za ya rubuta (he will write)
za ta rubuta (she will write)
za mu rubuta (we will write)
za ku rubuta (you plural will write)
za su rubuta (they will write)

What does the phrase yana kan literally mean, and how does it come to mean “is about/on (a topic)” here?

Literally:

yana = he/it is (progressive / continuous form of to be)
kan = on / on top of

So yana kan X literally is “it is on (top of) X”.

Idiomatic use:

With abstract nouns or topics, yana kan X is commonly used to mean
- “it is about X”,
- “it is on the subject of X”,
- “it deals with X”.

So in the sentence:

Rahoton da za mu rubuta yana kan tasirin ilimi…
= “The report that we will write is on/about the impact of education…”

You could think of it as: “The report is positioned on the topic of X.”

What is the difference between kan and ga in this sentence? Both seem to mean something like “on”.

They play different roles here:

kan in yana kan tasirin ilimi…
- Part of the expression yana kan X = is about X.
- It’s more topic-oriented: “on/about the subject of X”.
ga in tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki
- Basic meaning: to / towards / for / on (in the sense of affecting).
- Here it marks the target of the impact:
  - tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki = “the impact of education on the economy”.

So together:

yana kan tasirin ilimi = is about the impact of education
tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki = the impact of education on the economy

How is tasirin ilimi structured? What does the -n on tasirin do?

Tasirin ilimi means “the impact/effect of education.”

Breakdown:

tasiri = impact, effect, influence
tasiri + -n → tasirin
ilimi = knowledge / education

The -n on tasirin is the genitive linker / definite marker, just like in Rahoton. It joins two nouns in a possessive or of-relationship:

tasirin ilimi
= “the effect of education”
= literally “the effect-of education”.

This is the normal way Hausa expresses “X of Y” between two nouns: X‑n Y (with -n or -r depending on the word).

What does tattalin arziki mean, and is it one word or two?

Tattalin arziki is a fixed expression meaning “the economy”.

Structure:

tattali (from a verb meaning something like to manage carefully / economize / take care of)
arziki = wealth, livelihood, prosperity

Together, tattalin arziki literally suggests “management of wealth”, which corresponds to “economy”.

It’s usually written as two words, but it functions as one lexical unit (“economy”).

Why is the relative clause placed as Rahoton da za mu rubuta, and not after the whole sentence (e.g. at the end)?

In Hausa, a relative clause normally comes right after the noun it describes.

Here, the noun is Rahoton (“the report”).
The relative clause da za mu rubuta (“that we will write”) immediately follows it.

So:

Rahoton da za mu rubuta yana kan…
= “The report that we will write is about…”

If you tried to move da za mu rubuta to the end (e.g. Rahoton yana kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki da za mu rubuta), it would sound wrong or confusing, because da za mu rubuta would now appear to modify tattalin arziki rather than Rahoton.

Hausa strongly prefers:

[NOUN] + da + [clause describing that noun]

Could we also say Za mu rubuta rahoto kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki? How does that compare?

Yes, Za mu rubuta rahoto kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki is a natural sentence:

It means: “We will write a report on the impact of education on the economy.”

Difference in structure and nuance:

Original sentence:
- Rahoton da za mu rubuta yana kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki.
- Focus: describing a particular report (“the report that we will write”) and stating what it is about.
Alternative sentence:
- Za mu rubuta rahoto kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki.
- Focus: our future action (“we will write a report”) and specifying its topic.

Both are correct; they just emphasize different things (the report as an object vs. the act of writing it).

Is mu in za mu rubuta the subject pronoun “we”? How would this change with other persons?

Yes, mu is the subject pronoun “we”.

With the future marker za, the forms are:

zan rubuta – I will write
za ka rubuta – you (masc. sg.) will write
za ki rubuta – you (fem. sg.) will write
za ya rubuta – he will write
za ta rubuta – she will write
za mu rubuta – we will write
za ku rubuta – you (pl.) will write
za su rubuta – they will write

Note that 1st person singular usually contracts: za ni rubuta → zan rubuta.

Could we (or should we) add an object pronoun like shi in za mu rubuta shi here?

Grammatically, za mu rubuta shi = “we will write it”, and it is correct in itself.

In your sentence, though, the object is already clearly expressed as Rahoton at the beginning:

Rahoton da za mu rubuta…
= “The report that we will write…”

Since Rahoton is explicitly stated, you don’t need to repeat it with an object pronoun (shi) in the relative clause. Hausa normally avoids redundant object pronouns in this kind of structure.

If you removed Rahoton and only had Za mu rubuta shi, then shi would be necessary to show there is some object “it” being written.

Is there any difference between yana kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki and something like yana magana ne kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki?

Yes, there is a nuance:

yana kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki
- Literally: “it is on (the topic of) the impact of education on the economy”
- Used to say what the main subject / theme of something is (a report, discussion, book, etc.).
yana magana ne kan tasirin ilimi ga tattalin arziki
- Literally: “it is speaking / it is about (speaking) on the impact of education on the economy”
- More like: “it is talking about the impact of education on the economy.”
- Emphasizes the act of speaking/discussing.

For a written report, yana kan… is the more straightforward, neutral way to say “is about / deals with.”