Malama ta ce tarbiya da ilimi suna taimaka wa matashi ya tsaya da ƙafafunsa a duniya.

Malama means female teacher.

• Malami = male teacher
• Malama = female teacher

So the word Malama tells you both the profession (teacher) and that the speaker is talking about a woman. That’s why the verb later uses the feminine form ta (she) rather than ya (he).

• ta is the 3rd person singular feminine subject pronoun: she.
• ce here is the verb to say (perfective aspect: said).

So ta ce literally means she said and agrees with Malama (female teacher).
If the subject were male (Malami), you would say Malami ya ce (the male teacher said).

cewa is different: it’s a complementizer often used like English that after verbs of saying or thinking:

• Malama ta ce cewa tarbiya da ilimi…
  = The teacher said that upbringing and education…

In this sentence, cewa is simply omitted (which is very common), so ta ce tarbiya da ilimi… is fine and natural.

tarbiya da ilimi is a noun phrase meaning upbringing and education.

• tarbiya = upbringing, moral training, good manners
• da = and (when joining nouns)
• ilimi = knowledge, education

So da here is just a coordinating conjunction connecting two nouns, exactly like and:

• tarbiya da ilimi = upbringing and education

In Hausa, when you join two nouns with da as a compound subject, the verb usually agrees with them in the plural, even if they’re abstract:

• tarbiya da ilimi suna taimaka…
  = upbringing and education help …

Here:

• su = they
• na = continuous/habitual aspect marker
• suna = they are / they (habitually) do

So suna agrees with the two things together (tarbiya + ilimi). This is similar to English using they help for upbringing and education help.

Breakdown:

• su = they
• na = continuous/habitual aspect marker
• suna = they (are) … / they (habitually) …
• taimaka = to help
• wa = a preposition that marks the indirect object (who is being helped)

So suna taimaka wa matashi means:

• they help a young person
  literally: they help to a youth

In Hausa, taimaka is normally followed by wa before the person being helped:

• Na taimaka wa abokina. = I helped my friend.
• Ilimi yana taimaka wa yara. = Education helps children.

You might also meet the fused form taimakawa, but in this sentence it is split: taimaka wa.

Yes, that would be grammatical, but the meaning focus changes slightly.

• suna taimaka wa matashi = they help a young person / the young person (explicit noun)
• suna taimaka masa = they help him (referring back to a male person already clear from context)

You could also combine them if you want to add clarity or emphasis:

• suna taimaka wa matashi, suna taimaka masa ya tsaya…
  = they help the youth, they help him to stand…

In the given sentence, wa matashi is used to clearly introduce who is helped, and then ya tsaya (he stands) refers back to that matashi.

The subject of ya tsaya is matashi (the young person).

Structure:

• … suna taimaka wa matashi [ya tsaya da ƙafafunsa a duniya].

The clause ya tsaya… is a subordinate clause describing the result or purpose: “so that he stands…”.

• ya = 3rd person singular masculine subject pronoun: he
• tsaya = to stand, to stop

So literally:

• they help a young person [that he stand with his feet in the world].

Hausa often uses this pattern: NP + ya/ta … to introduce a new clause where that NP is the logical subject.

Literally:

• tsaya = to stand
• da = with / by / using
• ƙafafunsa = his feet

So tsaya da ƙafafunsa is literally to stand with his feet, but idiomatically it means to stand on his own feet, i.e., to be independent, self‑reliant.

This mirrors the English idiom very closely, just expressed with da (“with”) instead of “on”.

ƙafafunsa can be broken down like this:

• ƙafa = foot / leg
• ƙafafu = feet / legs (plural)
• -n = linker (often surfaces as -n/-r/-ar depending on the word)
• -sa = his

So:

• ƙafafu + n + sa → ƙafafunsa = his feet

Meaning in context: his own feet.
The possessive ending -sa is used for 3rd person singular masculine (“his”). For “her feet” it would be ƙafafunta.

a duniya means in the world.

• a = locative preposition: in/at/on
• duniya = the world, this world / earthly life

So ya tsaya da ƙafafunsa a duniya = he stands on his own feet in the world, expressing the place or sphere where he is independent.

You can also expand it in other sentences:

• a wannan duniya = in this world
• a cikin duniya = inside the world / in the world

Formally, ya tsaya uses the perfective verb form:

• ya tsaya = he stood / he has stood

But in subordinate clauses after verbs like taimaka, Hausa perfective often carries a result / purpose meaning:

• suna taimaka wa matashi ya tsaya…
  ≈ they help a young person (so that) he can stand… / to make him stand…

So even though the form is perfective, the overall sense in English is closer to:

• “…help a young person to stand on his own feet in the world.”

Hausa distinguishes:

• k = plain /k/ sound (like English k in kid)
• ƙ = ejective /k’/ sound, produced with a little “pop” or glottal closure

Spelling:

• k and ƙ are different letters in Hausa.
• In ƙafa, ƙafafu, ƙafafunsa, the correct consonant is ƙ, not k.

Many learners approximate ƙ with a strong k; you will usually still be understood, but it’s good to know that Hausa treats them as distinct phonemes.