Learn Hardcore Hausa: Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.

Musa is taller than Aisha.

Breakdown of Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.

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Questions & Answers about Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.

What does ya mean in this sentence, and why is it there if we already have Musa?

In Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo, the word ya is a subject pronoun + tense/aspect marker for 3rd person masculine singular.

Musa = the full noun subject (a name)
ya = the grammatical subject marker that shows:
- person: 3rd
- gender: masculine
- number: singular
- aspect: perfective (but often used for general facts)

In Hausa, you normally must have this subject marker even when a full noun is present. So:

✅ Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.
❌ Musa fi Aisha tsawo. (ungrammatical)

Think of ya as doing the job that English tense endings and auxiliaries do (like the -s in goes, or has / did), plus agreeing with the subject.

What is the literal, word-by-word meaning of Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo?

A fairly close word-by-word gloss is:

Musa – Musa
ya – he (3rd masc. sg. subject marker, perfective)
fi – surpass, be more than
Aisha – Aisha
tsawo – height, tallness, length

So a literal rendering would be:

Musa, he surpasses Aisha in height.

From that, natural English turns it into:

Musa is taller than Aisha.

What exactly does fi mean, and how does it work in comparisons?

fi is a verb meaning roughly to surpass, to exceed, to be more than. It is the core of the comparative construction in Hausa.

The basic pattern is:

X (subject) + subject marker + fi + Y (the thing/person compared to) + quality

So:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.
Musa surpasses Aisha in height ⇒ Musa is taller than Aisha.

Other examples with fi:

Giwa ta fi akuya girma.
The elephant surpasses the goat in size ⇒ The elephant is bigger than the goat.
Zan fi shi kudi.
I will surpass him in money ⇒ I will have more money than him.

So fi is always followed by:

The person/thing you compare with (Aisha, akuya, shi, etc.), and
The quality in which X is greater (tsawo, girma, kudi, ƙarfi, etc.).

Why is tsawo at the end? Could we say Musa ya fi tsawo Aisha instead?

The standard order in this construction is:

Subject + subject marker + fi + compared person/thing + quality

So:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo. ✅
(Musa > Aisha in height)

You cannot move the quality before the compared person like this:

❌ Musa ya fi tsawo Aisha.

That word order is ungrammatical in Hausa. The usual sequence is:

The one who is more (Musa)
The marker + fi (ya fi)
The one who is less (Aisha)
The quality (tsawo)

Is tsawo an adjective or a noun here? How is it different from words like dogo or tsayi?

In Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo, tsawo is functioning as a noun meaning height, tallness, length.

tsawo – height / length / tallness (a quality noun)
dogo (m.) / doguwa (f.) – tall (adjectives for people/animate things)
tsayi – also height; in many dialects tsayi and tsawo overlap in meaning

You might see:

mutum dogo – a tall man
gini mai tsawo – a tall building
tsawonsa ya yi yawa – his height is a lot

In this comparative construction with fi, Hausa prefers a noun of quality:

tsawo (height), girma (bigness, seniority), ƙarfi (strength), kyau (beauty), fari (whiteness), etc.

So the pattern is literally:

X surpasses Y in height / in strength / in beauty.

The marker ya is often used for past/perfective. Why do we translate this as present is taller, not was taller?

Yes, ya is the perfective subject marker, and in many contexts it corresponds to a past action (e.g. ya je = he went).

With stative or comparative meanings like ya fi, Hausa perfective often expresses:

A general, current fact, or
A stable state that holds now

So:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo.
Contextually means Musa is taller than Aisha (as a general fact), not just at one moment in the past.

If you needed to locate the comparison clearly in time (e.g. “he used to be taller than her”), you’d normally rely on time adverbs or extra wording:

Dā Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo. – Musa used to be taller than Aisha.
Yanzu Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo. – Now Musa is taller than Aisha.

But in neutral context, Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo is understood as a present, general comparison.

How do I change the sentence to say Aisha is taller than Musa instead?

Just swap the positions of the people and adjust the subject marker for feminine:

Aisha ta fi Musa tsawo.
Aisha surpasses Musa in height ⇒ Aisha is taller than Musa.

Breakdown:

Aisha – subject
ta – 3rd person feminine singular subject marker
fi – surpass
Musa – person she is compared to
tsawo – height

So the general rule:

Whoever is taller comes first (as the subject) and takes the appropriate subject marker (ya, ta, na, ka, etc.).

How would I say I am taller than Aisha using this same structure?

Use the 1st person singular subject marker na:

Ni na fi Aisha tsawo.
I surpass Aisha in height ⇒ I am taller than Aisha.

Here:

Ni – I (explicit pronoun, often used for emphasis)
na – 1st person singular subject marker
fi – surpass
Aisha – compared person
tsawo – height

You could also omit Ni in many contexts and just say:

Na fi Aisha tsawo. – I am taller than Aisha.

The subject marker na itself already signals I, but adding Ni emphasizes it.

Can I write ya fi as one word yafi?

In practice, you will see both spellings:

ya fi – two words (subject marker + verb)
yafi – one word (phonological fusion in writing)

Many writers and textbooks prefer to keep them separate, because:

ya is the subject marker (3rd masc. sg. perfective)
fi is the verb

So ya fi shows the structure clearly.

However, in informal writing and some printed materials, yafi is common too:

Musa yafi Aisha tsawo.

As a learner, it’s safest to write them separately (ya fi) to keep the grammar transparent. But be prepared to recognize both in reading.

How do I say Musa is much taller than Aisha?

You can strengthen the comparison in a few ways. Two very common ones:

Add sosai (very, a lot):
- Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo sosai.
  Musa is much taller than Aisha.
Add an intensifying adverb like ƙwarai:
- Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo ƙwarai.
  Musa is extremely taller than Aisha.

The basic structure stays the same:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo,
then you add an adverb of degree (sosai, ƙwarai, matuka, etc.).

How do I negate this and say Musa is not taller than Aisha?

Negating perfective forms in Hausa uses b-…-ba around the subject marker and the verb. For this sentence:

Musa bai fi Aisha tsawo ba.
Musa is not taller than Aisha.

Breakdown:

Musa – Musa
ba-…-i – negative form around the subject marker ya → bai
fi – surpass
Aisha – Aisha
tsawo – height
ba – final negative particle

So the pattern is:

Musa bai fi Aisha tsawo ba.

If I want to ask Is Musa taller than Aisha?, how do I turn this into a question?

The simplest way in everyday speech is just to use question intonation on the same sentence, sometimes adding ne? at the end for clarity:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo?
(Rising intonation) – Is Musa taller than Aisha?
Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo ne?
– Is it the case that Musa is taller than Aisha?

Both are understood as yes/no questions. You don’t need to change the word order.

Can I drop tsawo and just say Musa ya fi Aisha?

You can say Musa ya fi Aisha, but the meaning becomes vague and context-dependent.

Musa ya fi Aisha.
Musa is better than Aisha / superior to Aisha / surpasses Aisha (in some general or previously mentioned way).

Without tsawo or another quality word, the listener has to infer in what Musa surpasses Aisha.

If you specifically mean height, you should keep tsawo:

Musa ya fi Aisha tsawo. – Musa is taller than Aisha.

For other qualities, you replace tsawo:

Musa ya fi Aisha ƙarfi. – Musa is stronger than Aisha.
Musa ya fi Aisha kudi. – Musa has more money than Aisha.
Musa ya fi Aisha kyau. – Musa is more handsome/attractive than Aisha (context-dependent).

How do I say Musa is the tallest (for example, in a group) using this same fi pattern?

You can express a superlative by comparing Musa to everyone else. The common pattern is:

Musa ya fi kowa tsawo.
Musa surpasses everyone in height ⇒ Musa is the tallest.

Or more explicitly:

Musa shi ne ya fi kowa tsawo.
Musa, he is the one who surpasses everyone in height ⇒ Musa is the tallest.

Key pieces:

kowa – everyone
ya fi kowa tsawo – is taller than everyone

So the comparative structure with fi plus kowa gives you a superlative meaning.