Learn Hardcore Hausa: A darasin tattalin arziki, muna kwatanta farashin abinci a ƙauye da a birni. - In the economics lesson, we compare the price of food in the village with that in the city.

Here a is a preposition meaning “in / at / during.”
So a darasin tattalin arziki means “in the economics lesson / during the economics class.”

Hausa often uses a before a noun phrase to mark location or time:

a gida – at home
a kasuwa – at the market
a darasi – in class

The A is capitalized only because it starts the sentence; it’s the same a you see elsewhere.

2. How is the phrase darasin tattalin arziki built, and what does the -n on darasin do?

Darasin tattalin arziki is a genitive (possessive / “of”) construction:

darasi – lesson
darasin – darasi + -n, where -n is a linker that attaches the head noun to what follows
tattalin arziki – economics (literally something like “management of wealth”)

So the structure is:
darasi-n tattalin arziki → lesson-of economics.

Hausa usually puts the head noun first, then the linker (-n/-r/-ɗan, etc.), then the thing that specifies it:

farashin abinci – price of food
likitan yara – doctor of children (children’s doctor)

3. What exactly does tattalin arziki mean?

Tattalin arziki is the standard Hausa term for “economy / economics.”

Literally:

tattali – managing, taking care of
arziki – wealth, prosperity

Together they form a fixed expression tattalin arziki, used for:

the economy of a country
the subject of economics (school subject)

So darasin tattalin arziki is “the economics lesson / class.”

4. What tense or aspect is muna kwatanta?

Muna kwatanta is in the progressive / continuous aspect, often used for present ongoing or general/habitual actions.

mu – we
na (here fused as muna) – progressive marker
kwatanta – to compare

So muna kwatanta can mean:

“we are comparing” (right now, in this lesson)
or “we (usually) compare” (if describing a regular activity in that class)

Context decides whether it sounds more “right now” or “usually.”

5. What’s the difference between muna kwatanta and muke kwatanta?

Both involve “we” and “compare”, but they’re used differently:

muna kwatanta – simple progressive: “we are comparing / we compare.”
muke kwatanta – usually appears in focus or relative constructions, like:
- Mu ne muke kwatanta farashin abinci. – It is we who are comparing the price of food.
- A darasin da muke yi, muna kwatanta farashin abinci. – In the lesson that we do, we compare the price of food.

In your sentence, plain muna kwatanta is correct because nothing is being specially focused or relativized.

6. How does kwatanta work? How do you say “compare X and Y” in Hausa?

Kwatanta means “to compare.” The usual pattern is:

muna kwatanta X da Y – we compare X with Y / we compare X and Y

Examples:

Na kwatanta farashin shinkafa da wake. – I compared the price of rice with beans.
Sun kwatanta sakamakon jarabawa da na bara. – They compared the exam results with last year’s.

In your sentence, the things being compared are the price of food in the village and the price of food in the city, expressed inside one long noun phrase.

7. What does farashin abinci literally mean, and what is farashin?

Farashin abinci is another genitive structure:

farashi – price
farashi-n → farashin – price-of (with the linker -n)
abinci – food

So farashin abinci literally means “the price of food.”
Again, Hausa puts the head noun first: price-of food, not food’s price.

8. Why do we say a ƙauye and a birni? What does a do here?

Here a again is the location preposition, meaning “in / at.”

a ƙauye – in (a/the) village
a birni – in (a/the) city

So farashin abinci a ƙauye is “the price of food in the village,” and farashin abinci a birni is “the price of food in the city.”

Hausa does not have separate words for “a” vs “the”; ƙauye and birni can be understood as “a village/the village” and “a city/the city,” depending on context.

9. Do we really need to repeat a before birni? Could we say a ƙauye da birni?

You can say either:

a ƙauye da a birni – literally “in (the) village and in (the) city”
a ƙauye da birni – “in the village and (in the) city” (the second a is understood)

Both are acceptable in everyday speech.

Repeating a (a ƙauye da a birni) makes the structure more parallel and explicit, especially in careful or formal language. Dropping it (a ƙauye da birni) is a bit shorter and very common in speech.

10. What exactly is da doing between a ƙauye and a birni?

Here da functions as “and”, simply linking two phrases:

a ƙauye da a birni – in the village and in the city

So the whole object of muna kwatanta is:

farashin abinci a ƙauye da a birni
→ the price of food in the village and (in) the city

Because you’re comparing them, English naturally reads this as “we compare the price of food in the village and in the city.” The comparison meaning comes from kwatanta; da is just the “and.”

11. How would you say “between the village and the city” explicitly in Hausa?

You can use tsakanin … da … for “between X and Y”:

Muna kwatanta farashin abinci tsakanin ƙauye da birni.
– We compare the price of food between the village and the city.

In your original sentence, that idea of “between” is implied by the verb kwatanta and the list a ƙauye da a birni, so tsakanin is not necessary.

12. What is the difference between ƙauye and birni in terms of meaning and usage?

ƙauye – village, rural area
birni – city, town, urban area

They form a common contrast pair in Hausa, roughly “rural vs urban”:

rayuwa a ƙauye – life in the village
rayuwa a birni – life in the city

In your sentence, they set up the two environments whose food prices are being compared.

13. How do you pronounce ƙ in ƙauye, and how is it different from k?

Hausa distinguishes ƙ from k:

k – a regular voiceless k sound, like in English “kite.”
ƙ – an ejective k, produced with a little “burst” of air from the throat, not from the lungs.

To approximate ƙ:

close your throat slightly and make a sharp k without much breath; it sounds “tighter” than plain k.

Examples:

ƙauye (village)
kuka (baobab leaf soup) – with k, not ejective

14. Can the word order be changed? For example, can I say Muna kwatanta farashin abinci a ƙauye da a birni a darasin tattalin arziki?

Yes. Hausa word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases (time/place). Both are possible:

A darasin tattalin arziki, muna kwatanta farashin abinci a ƙauye da a birni.
Muna kwatanta farashin abinci a ƙauye da a birni a darasin tattalin arziki.

Placing a darasin tattalin arziki at the beginning just sets the scene first (“In the economics lesson, …”), which is stylistically very natural in Hausa. The meaning is essentially the same.