Wayata tana buƙatar caji; baturin ya kusa ƙarewa.

Both exist, but they’re different constructions:

• waya + -ta → wayata = my phone (a common “attached” possessive form)
• wayar tawa = literally the phone of mine (more emphatic/contrastive: my phone, not someone else’s)

So Wayata is the straightforward, everyday way to say my phone.

-ta is the 1st-person singular possessive suffix meaning my/mine attached to the noun:

• waya = phone
• wayata = my phone

You’ll see similar patterns with other nouns (the exact linking sound can change depending on the noun).

Because waya (phone) is treated as grammatically feminine in Hausa, so the subject pronoun agrees:

• tana = she/it (feminine) in the imperfective (ongoing/habitual) sense
• yana = he/it (masculine)

Even though a phone isn’t biologically female, Hausa nouns have grammatical gender, and agreement follows that.

It’s basically:

• tana (feminine it is/it does, imperfective)
• buƙatar (needs / is in need of)
• caji (charging/charge)

So the structure is [subject + imperfective marker] + [need] + [object].

It comes from buƙata (need), and buƙatar X literally means need of X. In everyday Hausa it functions very much like “to need”:

• (abu) yana buƙatar X = it needs X

So you can think of it as a verb-like expression built from a noun + linker.

caji is a very common loanword, ultimately from English charge (via local pronunciation/spelling). In modern Hausa it’s widely used for phone charging, battery charge, etc.

Depending on region/speaker, you may also hear more descriptive alternatives, but caji is extremely normal.

baturin is baturi (battery) with the -n “linking/definite” form often used at the end of a noun in certain contexts. In practice, baturin often feels like “the battery” or “the phone’s battery,” depending on context.

You’ll frequently see this -n with borrowed nouns too (like baturi → baturin).

ya kusa means it almost / it’s close to (doing something). It’s a common pattern:

• ya kusa + verbal noun = it is about to / nearly (happens)

So ya kusa ƙarewa = it’s nearly finished / it’s about to run out.

Because the second clause’s subject is baturi/baturin (battery), which is treated as grammatically masculine, so it takes masculine agreement:

• baturin ya... (masculine) Whereas the first clause was about waya (feminine):
• wayata tana... (feminine)

ƙarewa is a verbal noun (“-ing”/gerund-like form) from the verb ƙare (to finish / to be used up). After expressions like kusa (near/almost), Hausa often uses a verbal noun:

• ya kusa ƙarewa = it’s almost finishing / almost running out

ƙ is an ejective k sound (a “popped” k). It’s like a k, but produced with extra pressure and a sharp release.

• buƙatar: the ƙ is that sharp k in the middle
• ƙarewa: starts with that sharp k

Even if you approximate it as a normal k, people will usually still understand, but learning ƙ improves clarity and accent.