Learn Hardcore Hausa: Muradi na shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai.

Muradi – desire, wish, goal, aim
na – my (a possessive word agreeing with muradi)
- So muradi na = my desire / my goal
shi ne – literally it is (masculine); a focused “be”
- shi = he/it (masculine singular pronoun)
- ne = a copula/focus marker (like “is (the one that) …”)
in – “that I (should)” / “so that I can” (1st person subjunctive marker, not the English preposition “in”)
koyi – learn (verb form used after things like in, zan, ina so etc.)
Hausa – Hausa (language)
sosai – very, very much, really, a lot, thoroughly

So the structure is something like:
My goal – it is – that I learn Hausa very (well).

Why is it Muradi na and not Muradina? Are both correct?

Both forms are possible; they just represent different ways of showing possession:

Muradina – one-word form with a possessive ending -na (my desire).
Muradi na – two-word form (desire my), with a separate possessive word na.

In many contexts, you can use either:

Muradina shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai.
Muradi na shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai.

Subtle differences:

Muradina is the more tightly bound, “default” possessive.
Muradi na often feels a bit more emphatic or careful, and this split form is very natural when the noun is being focused or highlighted at the start of a sentence, as here.

For practical speaking:

Treat muradina and muradi na as both meaning “my desire / my goal”, and know that the sentence is perfectly correct as given.

What is the role of shi ne in the middle of the sentence? Could I just say Muradi na in koyi Hausa sosai?

Shi ne is an equative / focus construction roughly meaning “(it) is” with emphasis:

Muradi na shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai.
→ My goal, it is that I learn Hausa well.

Here:

shi = he/it (referring back to muradi, which is grammatically masculine)
ne = a copula/focus marker, used with masculine nouns

This pattern:

[Topic] + shi ne / ita ce + [what it is]

is very common to stress what something really is.

If you drop shi ne, the sentence changes:

Muradi na in koyi Hausa sosai is not a normal, complete sentence in Hausa; it sounds broken or incomplete.
You could say instead:
- Muradina in koyi Hausa sosai. (still sounds incomplete)
- Or more naturally: Muradina ne in koyi Hausa sosai. (same idea, but using only ne)

So in this exact wording, shi ne is not optional. It is what turns Muradi na into “My goal is …”.

Does in mean the English preposition “in”? What exactly is it doing in in koyi?

No. Hausa in here is not the English preposition “in”.

In this sentence, in is a subjunctive marker for 1st person singular – it means something like:

“that I (should)”
“so that I can”
“for me to”

So:

in koyi ≈ that I learn / for me to learn

Compare with other persons:

ka koyi – that you (m) learn
ki koyi – that you (f) learn
ya koyi – that he learn
mu koyi – that we learn, etc.

You’ll see this pattern after verbs of wanting, planning, etc.:

Ina so in koyi Hausa. – I want to learn Hausa.
Zan yi ƙoƙari in koyi Hausa. – I’ll try to learn Hausa.

So here in is part of the verb phrase, not a separate preposition.

Why is the verb koyi here and not koya like in Na koya Hausa?

The verb “to learn/teach” in Hausa has different forms depending on context:

Na koya Hausa. – I learned Hausa. (perfective form)
Ina koyon Hausa. – I am learning Hausa. (progressive form)
Zan koyi Hausa. – I will learn Hausa. (future / bound form)
Ina so in koyi Hausa. – I want to learn Hausa. (subjunctive / bound form)

In Muradi na shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai:

in triggers a subjunctive/bound form of the verb.
For this verb, that form is koyi.

So:

koya – used as a normal perfective verb (e.g. I learned).
koyi – the “bound” form used after words like in, zan, so, iya etc., roughly corresponding to the English “learn” in the infinitive “to learn” or “will learn”.

Why is there no word for “to” before “learn”, like “to learn Hausa”?

Hausa doesn’t use a separate word exactly like English “to” before verbs in this way.

Instead:

The subjunctive marker (here in) plus the right verb form (koyi) covers the meaning of English “to …” or “in order to …”.

So:

in koyi Hausa ≈ to learn Hausa / for me to learn Hausa / that I learn Hausa

You don’t say something like “to” + koyi; in koyi already fills that role in this structure.

What does sosai add to the meaning, and where can it appear in the sentence?

Sosai means something like:

“very”, “very much”, “really”, “a lot”, or “thoroughly”.

In this sentence:

Hausa sosai → Hausa very (well), i.e. Hausa very well / very much / really well.

Position:

It usually comes after the verb or its object, as here:
- in koyi Hausa sosai – “that I learn Hausa very well”
You will also see it after other verbs:
- Na gaji sosai. – I’m very tired.
- Na ji daɗi sosai. – I enjoyed it very much.

You could also slightly reorder:

in koyi sosai Hausa – possible but much less common; Hausa sosai is the natural order.

Is there any grammatical reason Hausa doesn’t have a word like “the” or “a” in front of it?

Hausa does not use separate articles equivalent to English “a/an” or “the”.

Hausa by itself can mean “(the) Hausa language”, depending on context.
If you want to be explicit, you can say:
- Harshen Hausa – the Hausa language (literally “language of Hausa”)

In ordinary speech, for learning a language, you simply say:

koyi Hausa – learn Hausa

So there is no missing word; the language just doesn’t mark articles the way English does.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? How would I say the same idea in a simpler way?

The sentence is perfectly natural and neutral. It can be used in both:

polite conversation (e.g. with a teacher)
casual conversation (e.g. with friends)

A bit simpler or more common ways to express the same idea include:

Ina da buri in koyi Hausa sosai.
– I have the ambition/goal to learn Hausa very well.
Ina so in koyi Hausa sosai.
– I want to learn Hausa very well. (very common, everyday style)

Your original sentence is slightly more “careful” or bookish because of muradi and the focus structure shi ne, but it’s not stiff or strange.

Does na in Muradi na change if the speaker is female, or if the noun is feminine?

The form of na depends on the noun’s gender, not the speaker’s gender.

Muradi is a masculine noun → it takes na:
- Muradi na – my desire / my goal

For a feminine noun, you’d see ta instead:

Mota ta – my car (mota = car, feminine)
Sha’awa ta – my interest/desire (sha’awa = desire, feminine)

Key points:

A female speaker still says Muradi na (because muradi is masculine).
The possessor (I/you/he/she) is already encoded; you don’t change na/ta based on whether the speaker is male or female.
na / ta agree with the noun possessed (masc/fem), not with the person who owns it.

How is this sentence pronounced in connected speech? Do any words join together?

A rough pronunciation (in simple English-style spelling) would be:

Muradi na shi ne in koyi Hausa sosai
≈ moo-RAH-dee na she NAY in KOH-yee HOW-sah so-SAI

In natural speech:

shi ne is often pronounced almost as one unit, like “shine” (and is often written shine).
in koyi flows together: the n of in attaches to koyi.
Stress is typically on the second syllable of Muradi (RAH) and on the last syllables -sa of Hausa and -sai of sosai.

So you might hear something close to:

Muradi na shine in koyi Hausa sosai.