Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ta ce tsawo na ɗakin karatu ya fi tsawon falo, amma nisa daga gida zuwa makaranta ya fi nisa zuwa masallaci. - She said the length of the reading room is more than the length of the living room, but the distance from home to school is more than the distance to the mosque.

ta = 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun (“she/it” for feminine nouns)
ce = a form of the verb to be / to say here functioning as “said” in a simple past/perfective sense

It’s ta (not ya) because the speaker is reporting what a female person said. If it were a man, it would be Ya ce (“he said”).

Why do we see both tsawo and tsawon in the same sentence? What’s the difference?

Both forms come from the same noun tsawo (“length/height”), but:

tsawo is the basic form:
- tsawo na ɗakin karatu = “the length of the study room”
tsawon is the construct / bound form used directly before another noun:
- tsawon falo = “the length of the living room”

So tsawo + the linker na = “length of …”
and tsawon + a following noun also = “length of …”.

You could also say:

tsawon ɗakin karatu instead of tsawo na ɗakin karatu

Both are grammatically correct; style and rhythm often decide which one is used.

What is the role of na in tsawo na ɗakin karatu, and how is it different from the -n we see in ɗakin karatu or tsawon falo?

Hausa has two main ways to express “of” / possession:

Linker word: na / ta / nāsu etc.
- tsawo na ɗakin karatu
  - tsawo (length)
  - na (“of”, agreeing in gender/number with tsawo)
  - ɗakin karatu (the study room)
Construct form of the first noun + attached -n / -r before the second noun
- ɗakin karatu = ɗaki (room) + -n
  - karatu (study) → “study room”
- tsawon falo = tsawo
  - -n
    - falo → “length of the living room”

So in your sentence you see both methods:

tsawo na ɗakin karatu (with na)
tsawon falo (with the construct -n)

They’re essentially doing the same grammatical job.

How does the comparative with fi work in this sentence? Where is the equivalent of “than”?

The basic pattern in Hausa with fi (to surpass / be more than) is:

[Subject] + (pronoun) + fi + [thing it’s compared to]

In the first half:

tsawo na ɗakin karatu = the subject (“the length of the study room”)
ya fi = “is more than / surpasses”
tsawon falo = what it’s compared to (“the length of the living room”)

So fi itself carries the meaning of “than”. There is no extra word that directly corresponds to English “than”; you don’t say something like “fi … da …” here. The structure:

tsawo na ɗakin karatu ya fi tsawon falo

literally: “the length of the study room surpasses the length of the living room.”

Why do we need the pronoun ya before fi when we already have a full subject like tsawo na ɗakin karatu?

In Hausa, even when there is a full noun phrase as subject, you typically still use a short subject pronoun before the verb. It agrees with the subject in person, number, and gender.

Subject NP: tsawo na ɗakin karatu
Short pronoun referring back to it: ya (masculine singular)
Verb: fi

So the structure is:

tsawo na ɗakin karatu ya fi tsawon falo

This is normal Hausa clause structure: full subject NP + agreeing short pronoun + verb. Leaving out ya here would sound ungrammatical in standard Hausa.

Why is it ya fi and not ta fi? How do I know which gender to use?

Hausa nouns have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), and the subject pronoun must agree with that gender.

tsawo (“length/height”) is grammatically masculine, so you use ya.
If the subject noun were feminine, you’d use ta.

Examples:

tsawo (m.) → ya fi …
girma (m., “bigness/size”) → ya fi girma …
ƙarama (f., “smallness”) → ta fi ƙarama …

You usually learn the gender of a noun simply as part of its vocabulary entry, since it’s not always predictable from the form.

How is the phrase nisa daga gida zuwa makaranta structured? What do daga and zuwa do?

nisa daga gida zuwa makaranta breaks down as:

nisa = distance / farness
daga = from
gida = home
zuwa = to
makaranta = school

So literally: “distance from home to school”.

In the second comparison:

nisa daga gida zuwa makaranta ya fi nisa zuwa masallaci

First subject: nisa daga gida zuwa makaranta (“the distance from home to school”)
ya fi = is more than
Second phrase: nisa zuwa masallaci (“the distance to the mosque”)

Notice that daga gida is not repeated before zuwa masallaci; it is understood that both distances start from the same place (home). You could say the fuller form nisa daga gida zuwa masallaci, but it’s natural and efficient to omit the repeated part.

Could I say this comparison in a different, maybe simpler, way—like comparing the rooms directly instead of their “length”?

Yes. Instead of focusing on the noun “length”, you can make the rooms the subjects and keep tsawo at the end. A very common pattern is:

[Thing A] + ya/ta fi + [Thing B] + [quality noun]

For the first part, you could say:

ɗakin karatu ya fi falo tsawo.
- “The study room is longer than the living room.”

For the distances:

zuwa makaranta ya fi zuwa masallaci nisa.
- “Going to the school is farther than going to the mosque.”

Your original sentence is perfectly correct; these are just alternative, often more conversational, ways to express the same comparisons.

Why are nouns like tsawo and nisa used, instead of adjectives like “long” or “far”?

Hausa often uses abstract nouns of quality where English uses adjectives. Instead of saying “X is long”, Hausa tends to say something like “X surpasses in length”.

tsawo = length/height
nisa = distance/farness

Typical patterns:

ɗakin karatu ya fi falo tsawo.
→ “The study room is longer than the living room.” (literally: “surpasses in length”)
zuwansa ya fi na ta nisa.
→ “His going is farther than hers.” (literally: “surpasses hers in distance”)

So comparatives are very often verb (fi) + noun of quality, rather than an adjective.

Can ya fi be written as one word (yafi)? I’ve seen both.

In careful, standard writing, it’s better to keep them separate:

ya fi (not yafi)
ta fi (not tafi, which is actually a different verb, “to go”)

However, in informal writing (especially online or in messages), people sometimes write yafi, tafi, etc., where fi is meant. This can be confusing because tafi is already a common verb (“to go”). For clarity and correctness, keep ya/ta and fi as two words when you mean “surpass / be more than”.

What tense/aspect are Ta ce and ya fi? Are we talking about past, present, or something else?

Ta ce is a simple past / perfective: “she said”. It refers to a completed event in the past—her speaking.
ya fi with fi is often used to express a general or present-time comparison: “is more (than)”.

So the overall sense is:

At some past moment, she said that:
- the length of the study room is greater than the length of the living room, and
- the distance from home to the school is greater than the distance to the mosque.

The act of saying is past (Ta ce), but the comparisons with ya fi typically describe facts that are still true or generally valid.