Learn Hardcore Hausa: Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida.

If you said just Iyaye koya mana tarbiya…, it would be ungrammatical in standard Hausa. The verb normally needs one of these aspect markers (like suna, suna, suna, suna depending on person/number) in this type of sentence.

Does suna koya mean are teaching right now or teach in general?

Suna koya can cover both:

Right now / ongoing:
Context: What are your parents doing these days?
Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida.
→ Our parents are teaching us good manners at home (these days).
Habitual / generally true:
Context: What do parents do for their children?
Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida.
→ Parents teach us good manners at home (as a general fact).

Hausa often uses the same progressive form for both ongoing and regular activities; context decides which reading is intended.

What is mana exactly? Is it us or to us, and why is it here?

Mana is an indirect object pronoun meaning to us / for us.

It comes from ga mu → to us, which fuses into the clitic form mana.

Common forms in this series are:

mini – to me
maka / miki – to you (m/f)
masa / mata – to him / to her
mana – to us
muku – to you (pl)
musu – to them

In this sentence:

suna koya mana tarbiya… = they teach *us good upbringing / manners…
Literally: they teach **to-us good upbringing…*

So mana marks who receives the teaching.

Why does mana come before tarbiya? Could I say suna koya tarbiya mana?

The normal order is:

Verb + indirect object pronoun + direct object

So:

suna koya mana tarbiya…
= they teach *to-us upbringing…*

Putting mana after tarbiya (suna koya tarbiya mana) sounds wrong or at best very odd in standard Hausa. The clitic pronoun likes to sit close to the verb.

I learned koya can mean both teach and learn. How do I know which one it is here?

Koya is indeed used for both teach and learn. The meaning is decided by:

The objects involved, and
The prepositions or pronoun forms used.

Some patterns:

X ya koya Y (ga) Z
→ X taught Y to Z
(Iyaye suna koya tarbiya ga yara = Parents teach manners to children)
X ya koya Y daga / wurin Z
→ X learned Y from Z
(Na koya Hausa daga malamai = I learned Hausa from teachers)

In Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya…, we have:

Iyaye (parents) as subject
mana (to us) as recipient
tarbiya (upbringing/manners) as what is being transmitted

Given that parents are the ones giving tarbiya, the only natural reading is teach:
Parents teach us good upbringing/manners…

What does tarbiya mean here? Is it just manners?

Tarbiya is a loanword from Arabic and has a broader meaning than just manners:

upbringing
moral training
discipline
good behavior / good character formation
how a child is raised

In this sentence, tarbiya mai kyau includes ideas like good manners, good character, proper discipline and moral upbringing. Often, translators pick good manners as a short, natural English equivalent, but it’s a bit richer than that.

Why do we say tarbiya mai kyau instead of kyakkyawar tarbiya? Are both correct?

Both are correct, but they feel slightly different:

tarbiya mai kyau
- Literally: upbringing that has goodness
- Very common pattern: NOUN + mai kyau = good NOUN
- Neutral, everyday, easy for learners.
kyakkyawar tarbiya
- kyakkyawa = good/beautiful (feminine form; tarbiya is grammatically feminine)
- kyakkyawar tarbiya sounds a bit more formal or descriptive, sometimes with a stronger sense of good, noble upbringing.

In everyday speech tarbiya mai kyau is very common and completely natural.

Why is the preposition a used in a gida? What nuance does it have?

A is a general locative preposition meaning in, at, on depending on context.

a gida = at home / in the house
a makaranta = at school
a kasuwa = at the market

In Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida, a gida locates the action:
They teach us good upbringing at home.

If you said a cikin gida, it would more literally be inside the house, with a slightly stronger sense of inside. A gida is broader and more neutral.

What is the word order pattern of this sentence?

The structure is:

Iyaye – Subject (Parents)
suna – Auxiliary / aspect marker (are [doing])
koya – Main verb (teach)
mana – Indirect object pronoun (to us)
tarbiya mai kyau – Direct object (good upbringing/manners)
a gida – Locative phrase (at home)

So in more abstract terms:

Subject – Aux – Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object – Place

This is a very typical Hausa word order pattern.

Could the subject Iyaye be dropped and just say Suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida?

Yes, you can say:

Suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida.

That would mean They are teaching us good upbringing at home, with they understood from context.

Hausa often allows dropping the explicit noun subject if the meaning is clear from earlier conversation or situation. The subject agreement in suna already tells you it is they (3rd person plural).

Is iyaye always plural parents, or can it mean parent (singular) sometimes?

Grammatically, iyaye is plural: parents.

Singular forms are:

uba – father
uwa – mother

However, in real usage:

iyaye can also mean parents in general (as a group, as a concept), not necessarily your own two parents.
Some speakers may use iyaye loosely when they mean a parent figure or the people who raised you, but strictly speaking it is plural.

In this sentence it’s naturally understood as parents (in general), not just one parent.

Could I use koyar da instead of koya here? For example: Iyaye suna koyar da mu tarbiya mai kyau a gida?

Yes, that is also correct, just slightly different grammatically:

koya (wa) – teach (to someone)
- suna koya mana tarbiya… = they teach *to-us upbringing…*
koyar da – causative form, literally cause to learn / teach
- suna koyar da mu tarbiya… = they teach us upbringing…

Differences:

With koya, you normally use an indirect object pronoun like mana.
With koyar da, you usually use the regular object pronoun, like mu.

Both sentences are natural:

Iyaye suna koya mana tarbiya mai kyau a gida.
Iyaye suna koyar da mu tarbiya mai kyau a gida.

They express practically the same idea in this context.