Rayuwar Yau da Kullum
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Combine home, routine, food, and shopping language in a single connected exchange.
- Ask and answer follow-up questions across these four domains without switching to English.
- Resolve a simple everyday misunderstanding using polite clarification and repair language.
- Describe preferences and practical needs using so, the negative continuative, and quantity expressions.
- Sustain a short transaction from beginning to end, combining greeting, request, negotiation, and closing.
- Apply existence, nonexistence, possession with da, and location accurately within a longer passage.
- Select correct gender, plural, demonstrative, adjective, and linker agreement across all four units of vocabulary.
- Use direct-object pronouns and the object-conditioned verb forms taught in Chapter 9 in new transactional contexts.
- Form information questions using the relative-continuative patterns reviewed since Chapter 3.
Communication Scenario
A friend is visiting your home in Kano for the first time. Over the course of an afternoon, you show them around the house, discuss your daily schedule, decide what to cook for the evening meal, realize you are missing an ingredient, and go together to a nearby market stall to buy what you need. By the time your friend leaves, you have used language from four different chapters in one connected stretch of communication — which is, in fact, what real conversations require. This chapter does not introduce new grammar. Instead, it asks you to move fluidly between the systems you already control: existence and possession from Chapter 6, continuative routines from Chapter 7, food preferences and negation from Chapter 8, and market transactions and object pronouns from Chapter 9.
- As you read and listen to the materials in this chapter, keep a mental tally of which earlier chapter each sentence pattern comes from. This habit — noticing how the systems connect — is exactly the skill that will let you hold a real conversation rather than recite isolated sentences.
- Pay close attention to the misunderstanding-and-repair language introduced in this chapter. Knowing how to say "I don't understand," "can you repeat that," or "I meant something different" is just as important to fluency as knowing vocabulary, and it has not yet been the explicit focus of a chapter.
Unit II Self-Check
Before working through this chapter, review what you should already control from Chapters 6–9. Use this grid honestly — if any box feels shaky, revisit the relevant chapter section before continuing.
Core Vocabulary
This chapter introduces no large new vocabulary domain. The table below presents a small set of new transaction-management and repair expressions needed to connect the four domains naturally. Everything else recycles vocabulary from Chapters 6 through 9.
Sarrafa tattaunawa — Conversation and transaction management
| Hausa | English | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Ban gane ba. | I did not understand. / I don't get it. | signal confusion politely; recognition of negative pattern from Ch. 8 |
| Ka/Ki sake faɗa, don Allah. | Please say it again. (to a male/female) | polite request for repetition; uses fixed Ch. 2/11-preview imperative pattern as a formula |
| Ina nufin… | I mean… / What I meant was… | clarifying or correcting yourself |
| Kana/Kina nufin…? | Do you mean…? (to a male/female) | checking what someone else meant |
| To, na gane yanzu. | Okay, I understand now. | confirming understanding |
| Wani abu kuma? | Anything else? | continuing a transaction; reviewed from Ch. 9 |
| Shi ke nan. | That's it. / That's all. | closing a transaction or list; formulaic |
| Babu damuwa. | No problem. / Don't worry about it. | responding graciously to a small mistake or change |
These expressions are productive for this chapter and will recur in later transactional and problem-solving contexts, including Chapters 11 and 13.
Bita na kalmomi — Vocabulary review by domain
Before the grammar section, take a moment to recall the productive nouns and verbs below. You do not need to relearn them — this list is a memory check, not a new presentation.
| Domain | Sample recycled vocabulary |
|---|---|
| Home (Ch. 6) | ɗaki (room), kicin (kitchen), kujera (chair), akwai, babu, nan/can |
| Routines (Ch. 7) | tashi (verbal noun: tashi), cin abinci (eating), aiki (work), days of the week, clock time |
| Food (Ch. 8) | shinkafa (rice), miya (soup/stew), ruwa (water), so, ina son…, ba na son… |
| Market (Ch. 9) | kuɗi (money), nawa (how much), prices, shi/ta as direct-object pronouns, saya (buy) |
Pronunciation and Boko
Tone and length across connected phrases
Up to this point, you have practiced tone and vowel length mainly within single words, short phrases, and isolated sentences. This chapter asks you to maintain accurate tone and length while moving between several connected sentences — a more demanding but essential skill for real conversation.
When speakers string several short statements together quickly — as happens naturally in a real exchange like the one in this chapter's dialogue — there is a tendency for English speakers to flatten Hausa tone into a single English-style intonation contour that rises and falls only at the boundaries of the whole utterance. Resist this tendency. Each Hausa word retains its own tone pattern even inside a longer phrase. Practice by reading the model dialogue aloud slowly at first, pausing briefly after each sentence to consciously reset to the next word's tone, then gradually increasing your speed while keeping the tone pattern of each word intact.
Number and price discrimination
Review the numbers 1–100 from Chapters 2 and 3, together with the price and quantity language from Chapter 9. In this chapter's listening passage, prices and quantities appear in a connected narrative rather than as isolated drill items — listen for them inside full sentences, not as a separate list.
Subject-form discrimination
This chapter recycles three subject-form systems you have already met: independent pronouns (Ch. 1), continuative subject forms (Ch. 7), and the formulaic relative-continuative forms used in information questions (Ch. 3, 6, 9). None of these is new, but distinguishing them quickly in connected speech takes practice.
These five continuative subject forms differ by only a vowel or a single consonant, and in natural speech they pass quickly. Ina (I), kana (you, m.), kina (you, f.), yana (he), and tana (she) all begin with a vowel-plus-nasal shape but carry distinct onsets and tone. Listen to the chapter's listening passages several times, each time focusing on identifying only the subject form before worrying about the rest of the sentence. This isolates the skill and builds confidence before you try to process a full sentence at natural speed.
Dictation in ordinary Boko
As in earlier chapters, dictation exercises in this chapter use unmarked ordinary Boko. Continue applying the reading checklist from Chapter 3: identify hooked letters and 'y before reading further, read c, sh, and ts with their correct Hausa values, and rely on your ear — not the spelling — for tone and length.
Hooked-letter accuracy
This chapter's vocabulary and dialogue contain frequent instances of ɗ, ƙ, ɓ, and 'y. As a final accuracy check for Unit II, proofread your own writing in the Writing Workshop section with particular attention to these four characters — they must never be replaced with a plain letter.
Grammar Instruction
This chapter introduces no new grammatical system. The sections below consolidate and recombine the systems taught in Chapters 6 through 9, with attention to how they interact in connected discourse.
10.1 Existence, nonexistence, location, and possession together
In a real description of a home, speakers move naturally between stating what is present (akwai), what is absent (babu), where something is located, and who possesses it. Chapter 6 introduced these separately. Here they appear combined in a single short passage.
- Akwai ɗaki ɗaya da kicin a gidana.There is one bedroom and a kitchen in my house.
- Babu gareji, amma akwai babban falo.There is no garage, but there is a large living room.
- Kicin yana kusa da falo.The kitchen is near the living room.
- Ina da firiji a kicin, amma babu na'urar wanki a gida.I have a refrigerator in the kitchen, but there is no washing machine at home.
When you describe a real home, you will often need all four Chapter 6 tools in the same paragraph: akwai for what exists, babu for what does not, a location expression for where something is, and a continuative-plus-da construction for what a person possesses. None of these four substitutes for another. A common test: if the sentence answers "is there a…?", use akwai/babu. If it answers "where is…?", use a location expression. If it answers "who has…?", use possession with da. Practicing this decision quickly, rather than translating from English word by word, is the real skill this section reviews.
10.2 Continuative routines recombined with new time references
Chapter 7's continuative subject forms and verbal nouns return here in combination with the food and market vocabulary of Chapters 8 and 9 — for example, describing a daily shopping or cooking routine rather than a generic schedule.
- Kowace rana, ina tafiya kasuwa da safe.Every day, I go to the market in the morning.ina + tafiya (verbal noun) + location + time
- Yana saya kayan abinci kafin ya je aiki.He buys groceries before he goes to work.
- Muna girki tare da yamma.We cook together in the evening.
Note that kafin ya je aiki uses a connector and a verb form that previews narrative sequencing developed further from Chapter 16 onward. Treat it here as a recognition-only formula meaning "before he goes to work."
10.3 Negative continuative and preference recombined
Chapter 8's negative continuative and so-constructions return here applied to both food and shopping contexts, since the same negation pattern works across domains.
- Ba na son shinkafa da yamma; ina son ta da safe kawai.I don't like rice in the evening; I only like it in the morning.ta = direct-object pronoun referring to shinkafa (Ch. 9 review)
- Ba mu da albasa a gida — dole ne mu je kasuwa.We don't have onions at home — we have to go to the market.
- Ba ya son ya saya mai tsada sosai.He does not want to buy something very expensive.
The expression dole ne (it is necessary / must) appears above as a formulaic recognition item. Necessity with dole becomes fully productive in Chapter 13. For this chapter, you may use dole ne mu je… ("we have to go…") as a fixed expression when a performance task calls for expressing urgency, but you are not expected to manipulate its grammar productively yet.
10.4 Direct-object pronouns and object-conditioned forms in new contexts
Chapter 9 introduced direct-object pronouns and a small set of object-conditioned verb forms for transaction verbs. This chapter recycles them in slightly expanded contexts — for instance, referring back to a food item already mentioned earlier in a conversation, several sentences later, rather than in the same sentence where it was introduced.
- Ga albasa — kana son ta?Here is the onion — do you want it?ta refers back to albasa (feminine)
- Ina nema shinkafa. Ba na ganin ta a kantin.I am looking for rice. I don't see it in the shop.
- Ka saye su duka biyu?Did you buy both of them?su = plural direct-object pronoun; recognition-only completive form preview
The verb saye in the final example is the object-conditioned form of saya before a pronoun object, taught in Chapter 9. Its appearance with a completive subject form (ka) here is recognition-only; the general completive becomes productive in Chapter 16.
10.5 Information questions: ordinary and relative-continuative forms reviewed
Throughout Unit II, questions beginning with a question word have required a relative-continuative subject form rather than the ordinary continuative form. This chapter asks you to select the correct form across all four domains without a grammar label attached to remind you.
| Ordinary statement | Information question (relative form) |
|---|---|
| Ina girki yanzu. (I am cooking now.) | Me kake girki? (What are you cooking?) |
| Tana zuwa kasuwa. (She is going to the market.) | Ina take zuwa? (Where is she going?) |
| Yana saya albasa. (He is buying onions.) | Nawa yake biya? (How much is he paying?) |
This Building Block does not present a single new pattern. It models how four already-taught systems — existence/possession (Ch. 6), connectors (amma, don haka — reviewed from Ch. 7), and a recognition-only future-style question (za mu saya, previewed productively in Ch. 14) — combine into one natural stretch of discourse. Use it as a model for your own connected speech and writing in this chapter's tasks.
Practice exercises
Atisayen A — Zaɓi kayan aiki na nahawu (Choose the right grammatical tool):
For each English sentence, decide which Chapter 6 tool is needed: akwai, babu, a location expression, or possession with da.
- There is no salt in the kitchen.
- The market is near my house.
- We have two chairs in the living room.
- Is there a refrigerator here?
- I don't have any money today.
Atisayen B — Haɗa jimloli (Combine sentences):
Combine each pair of short sentences into one connected sentence using a connector you already know (amma, kuma, don haka, saboda).
- Ina son shinkafa. Ba na son miyar kifi.
- Babu albasa a gida. Sai mu je kasuwa.
- Yana aiki da safe. Yana hutawa da yamma.
- Ta saya kayan lambu. Ba ta saya nama ba.
Atisayen C — Amsa da wakilin abu (Answer with an object pronoun):
Answer each question using a direct-object pronoun instead of repeating the noun.
- Kana son shinkafa? (Yes, …)
- Ta saya albasa? (Yes, …)
- Kuna da kujerun nan biyu? (No, …)
- Yana ganin kasuwar? (Yes, …)
Atisayen D — Yi tambaya mai dacewa (Form the matching question):
Write the information question that would naturally produce each answer, using the correct relative-continuative subject form.
- Answer: Ina girki shinkafa. (Question: What…?)
- Answer: Tana zuwa kasuwa. (Question: Where…?)
- Answer: Yana biya naira ɗari biyu. (Question: How much…?)
- Answer: Muna zaune a Kano. (Question: Where…?)
Atisayen E — Gyara kuskure (Correct the error):
Each sentence contains one cumulative error from Unit II. Identify and correct it.
- Ba akwai shinkafa a gida.
- Ina son shi albasa.
- Yana kake girki yanzu.
- Mu da kuɗi sosai.
Model Dialogue
Yanayin hali: Zainab tana karbar bakuwa, Aisha, a gidanta da yamma a Kano. Suna tattaunawa game da gida, abincin yamma, da abin da suka rasa, sannan su je kasuwa kusa da gida don sayan albasa.
(Setting: Zainab is hosting her friend Aisha at her home in the evening in Kano. They talk about the house, the evening meal, what they are missing, and then go to a nearby market to buy onions.)
Vocabulary notes for the dialogue: Barka da zuwa = welcome; lambu = garden; da wuri = early; shan kofi = drinking coffee (verbal noun construction, Ch. 7); ko ba haka ba? = isn't that so?, right? (formulaic tag question); mai sayarwa = seller, vendor; kwano = bowl, basin (a common market measure); rabi = half.
Tambayoyin fahimta — Comprehension questions:
- How many rooms does Zainab's house have, and what does it lack?
- What does Zainab do every morning, according to the dialogue?
- What problem does Zainab discover, and what repair expression does she use to signal her own confusion at first?
- What two items do Zainab and Aisha go to buy, and how much do they cost or how much do they ask for?
- Find the sentence where Zainab uses a continuative form to invite Aisha along. Write it and identify the subject form.
- Find one example each of akwai and babu in the dialogue. Write both sentences.
Listening
Ask your instructor, a partner, or a text-to-speech tool to read the following passages aloud, twice each. Complete the tasks after listening.
Sauraro na A — Gidana da yini na (My home and my day)
"Ina zaune a gida mai ɗaki biyu da kicin. Babu lambu, amma akwai babban falo. Kowace rana, ina tashi da ƙarfe shida na safe. Ina shan shayi, sannan ina tafiya aiki da ƙarfe takwas."
Sauraro na B — Matsala a kicin (A problem in the kitchen)
"Ina son girki abinci da yamma, amma ban gane abin da ya ɓace ba. Ina nema shinkafa — ba na ganin ta! Ina ganin yanzu: babu shinkafa, babu albasa. Dole ne mu je kasuwa."
Sauraro na C — A kasuwa (At the market)
"Nawa kuɗin tumatir?" — "Naira ɗari uku ne na kwano ɗaya." — "Ina son kwano biyu, don Allah." — "To, naira ɗari shida ke nan. Wani abu kuma?" — "Shi ke nan. Na gode."
Kula na A — Cike tebur (Complete the table): Listen to Sauraro na A and note: number of rooms, what is missing, what time the speaker wakes up, what the speaker drinks, and what time the speaker leaves for work.
Kula na B — Amsoshi (Answers): Listen to Sauraro na B. Answer: (1) What does the speaker want to cook? (2) What two items are missing? (3) What repair expression does the speaker use first?
Kula na C — Gaskiya ko ƙarya? (True or false?): Listen to Sauraro na C. Mark each statement T or F and correct any false ones.
(a) Tumatir ya kai naira ɗari uku na kwano ɗaya. (b) Mai siyayya yana son kwano uku. (c) Jimlar kuɗin ta kai naira ɗari shida.
Rubutun sauraro don malami, abokin karatu, ko amfani da rubutun lantarki. Duba amsoshi a sashi na amsoshi.
(Listening Script for Instructor, Partner, or Text-to-Speech Use. See Answer Key for expected responses.)
Reading
Read the two short texts below. They have been written for learners at this stage of the course and combine vocabulary and grammar from all of Unit II.
Rubutu na 1 — Yinin Halima (Halima's day)
Sunana Halima ce. Ina zaune a gida mai ɗaki biyu, kicin, da falo. Babu gareji, amma akwai lambu kadan. Kowace rana, ina tashi da ƙarfe shida. Ina son shan kofi da safe, ba shayi ba. Da yamma, ina tafiya kasuwa don sayan kayan abinci. A yau, ina son saya shinkafa, albasa, da tumatir. Ban da kuɗi sosai a hannu, don haka ina nema mai sayarwa mai araha.
New words for recognition: mai araha = affordable; a hannu = in hand, on me (idiomatic); ban da = I do not have (recognition-only completive negation; productive in Ch. 16).
Rubutu na 2 — Matsala a gidan Yusuf (A problem at Yusuf's house)
Sunansa Yusuf ne. Yana zaune a gida mai ɗaki uku. Akwai firiji da na'urar wanki, amma babu talabijin a falo. Da yamma jiya, yana son girki miyar kifi, amma bai sami kifi ba a gida. Ya tafi kasuwa, ya saya kifi guda biyu, kuma ya saya albasa kadan. Mai sayarwa ya tambaye shi, "Wani abu kuma?" Yusuf ya ce, "Shi ke nan. Na gode."
New words for recognition: jiya = yesterday; bai sami…ba = he did not find… (recognition-only negative completive; productive in Ch. 16); guda biyu = two units/pieces.
Tambayoyin fahimta — Comprehension questions:
- Describe Halima's house in English using the details given in the passage.
- What does Halima drink in the morning, and what does she explicitly say she does not drink?
- List the three items Halima plans to buy at the market.
- What does Yusuf's house have and lack, according to the passage?
- What problem does Yusuf encounter, and how does he solve it?
- Find the market-closing expression used in Rubutu na 2 and compare it with the same expression in this chapter's model dialogue.
Writing Workshop
- Karanta samfuri. Reread Rubutu na 1 (Halima's day) above. Underline every sentence using akwai or babu. Circle every continuative subject form. Put a box around the food and market vocabulary.
- Shirya bayananka. Plan your own connected account. Note: a brief description of your home (or an invented home), one daily routine detail, one food preference or plan, and one small problem or market task that follows from it.
- Rubuta farkon rubutunka. Write a connected paragraph of 100–120 words that moves through all four domains in order: home, routine, food, and a market task. Use at least one akwai/babu sentence, one continuative routine sentence, one negative continuative or so sentence, and one sentence with a direct-object pronoun.
- Duba da jerin bincike. Check your draft against the editing checklist before writing the final version.
- Rubuta siffa ta ƙarshe. Produce a clean final version for your portfolio.
Jerin binciken gyara — Editing checklist:
- Each existence or nonexistence statement correctly uses akwai or babu, not the other.
- Each possession statement uses a continuative subject form plus da, with correct person, gender, and number.
- Each continuative routine sentence pairs the correct subject form with a verified verbal noun.
- Negative continuative statements include both required elements of the construction.
- At least one direct-object pronoun replaces a previously mentioned noun rather than repeating it.
- Information questions, if used, select the relative-continuative subject form, not the ordinary form.
- Hooked letters (ɗ, ƙ, ɓ) and 'y are written correctly wherever they appear.
- The paragraph reads as connected discourse with at least two connectors (amma, kuma, don haka, saboda), not as a list of unconnected sentences.
- Each sentence ends with a full stop. Names and the first word of each sentence are capitalized.
Speaking Practice
Atisaye na ƙa'ida — Controlled practice
With a partner, take turns describing a home using akwai and babu for at least four items, then describing one daily routine using a continuative form. Your partner must ask one follow-up information question using a relative-continuative form after each description.
Tafiya gida-zuwa-kasuwa — Home-to-market role-play
In pairs, recreate the structure of this chapter's model dialogue: one partner hosts the other at home, describes the house briefly, mentions a planned meal, discovers a missing ingredient, and the pair goes to a market stall (the second partner switches to playing the vendor) to complete a short purchase. Use at least one repair expression (Ban gane ba, Ki/Ka sake faɗa, Ina nufin…) somewhere in the exchange.
Gyara kuskure da magana — Spoken error correction
Your instructor or partner will say five sentences aloud, each containing one deliberate error from a Unit II grammar system. Listen and correct each one aloud, explaining briefly (in English or Hausa, as you are able) why the original sentence was incorrect.
Madadin karatu kai tsaye — Solo alternative
Record yourself narrating a four- to five-minute connected account: describe a home, your daily routine, what you want to eat today, and a market task that follows. Use at least one repair expression as if correcting yourself mid-sentence. Listen back and check that you used akwai/babu, continuative forms, negative continuative, and at least one direct-object pronoun accurately.
Culture and Communication
Hosting a guest, as Zainab does in this chapter's dialogue, is a meaningful social event in many Hausa-speaking households, but the specific expectations vary by family, region, generation, and individual relationship. Offering something to drink or eat, showing a guest around, and accompanying a guest on an errand are common courtesies in many settings, but they are not rigid rules that every household follows in the same way. Avoid treating any single household's practice — including the one shown in this chapter — as representative of "how Hausa people host guests" in general.
The willingness to interrupt a planned activity (such as cooking) to solve a problem together, as Aisha does by offering to accompany Zainab to the market, reflects a value placed on companionship and mutual assistance in many communities, but again this is a tendency, not a universal script. Treat this dialogue as one plausible example among many.
Saying Ban gane ba ("I did not understand") or asking someone to repeat themselves is not a sign of weak language ability — it is a normal part of communication in any language, including for native speakers in noisy markets, fast conversations, or unfamiliar topics. As you continue through this course, build the habit of using repair expressions confidently rather than guessing silently or switching to English. Hausa speakers, like speakers of any language, generally respond warmly to a learner who asks for clarification clearly and politely.
This chapter's dialogue uses kwano (a bowl or basin) as a common informal measure for items like onions and tomatoes in many Nigerian markets — a practice that varies by region, vendor, and item. Some markets use weight-based measures instead, particularly for packaged or imported goods. As established in Chapter 9, this course distinguishes Nigerian naira from Nigerien CFA francs; all prices in this chapter are given in naira, consistent with the Kano-based setting of the dialogue and readings.
Common Mistakes
Error: Ba akwai shinkafa a gida.
Correction: Babu shinkafa a gida. — Hausa does not negate akwai by placing ba in front of it. Nonexistence has its own dedicated word, babu, which functions as the negative counterpart of akwai rather than as akwai plus a negative particle. If you find yourself wanting to negate akwai, stop and substitute babu instead.
Error: Ina son shi albasa. (inserting a direct-object pronoun before the noun it is meant to replace)
Correction: A direct-object pronoun replaces the noun; it does not accompany it in the same clause. Say either Ina son albasa (using the full noun) or Ina son ta (using the pronoun, once albasa has already been mentioned), but not both together. Use the pronoun only after the noun it refers to has already been introduced in the conversation.
Error: Yana kake girki yanzu. (mixing a third-person ordinary form with a second-person relative form)
Correction: Yana girki yanzu. (He is cooking now — ordinary continuative, no question word present) or Me kake girki? (What are you cooking? — relative form, used because the sentence begins with a question word). Relative-continuative forms appear only when a question word, focus, or relative context requires them. A plain statement with no question word uses the ordinary continuative subject form that matches its own subject.
Error: Mu da kuɗi sosai. (using the independent pronoun mu as the subject of a possession statement instead of the continuative subject form)
Correction: Muna da kuɗi sosai. (We have a lot of money.) Possession with da, as taught in Chapter 6, requires a continuative subject form — muna, not the independent pronoun mu — before da. The independent pronoun may appear additionally for emphasis (Mu kanmu, muna da kuɗi), but it cannot substitute for the continuative subject form.
Chapter Review
Sashi na A — Kalmomi (Vocabulary)
1. Give the Hausa for: I did not understand; please say it again; anything else?; that's it.
2. Recall and write three productive nouns each from the home, food, and market domains.
3. Give the Hausa for: no problem; I mean…; okay, I understand now.
Sashi na B — Nahawu (Grammar)
1. Complete each sentence with akwai or babu:
(a) _____ ruwa a kicin. (There is water in the kitchen.) (b) _____ kujera a falo. (There is no chair in the living room.)
2. Rewrite each sentence in the negative continuative:
(a) Ina son shinkafa da yamma. (b) Yana zuwa kasuwa yau.
3. Replace the underlined noun with a direct-object pronoun:
(a) Ina son albasa. (b) Ka saya shinkafa?
4. Form the information question that matches each answer:
(a) Answer: Ina girki miya. (Question: What…?) (b) Answer: Tana zuwa kasuwa. (Question: Where…?)
5. Choose the correct continuative subject form to complete each sentence:
(a) _____ da kuɗi sosai. (We have a lot of money.) (b) _____ son shan kofi. (She wants to drink coffee.)
Sashi na C — Karatu (Reading)
1. Reread Rubutu na 1 and Rubutu na 2. For each person, write three facts in English covering at least two different domains (home, routine, food, or market).
2. Find the negative statement in Rubutu na 1 that uses ba shayi ba. What does it negate, and what pattern is this?
3. Identify two recognition-only items in Rubutu na 2 and explain what each one means without analyzing its full grammar.
Sashi na D — Rubutu (Writing)
1. Write a connected 100-120-word Hausa account that moves through home, routine, food preference, and a market task, following the model in the Writing Workshop.
Sashi na E — Magana (Speaking)
1. Without notes, describe your home using akwai/babu, state one daily routine, state a food preference using so, and ask a partner one information question about their own home, routine, or food preference using a relative-continuative form.
Bitar gaba ɗaya — Cumulative review (Unit I)
1. Greet your partner appropriately for the time of day, exchange names if you have not already, and ask where they are from before beginning the home-and-market role-play in the Speaking Practice section.
2. Introduce one member of your household (real or invented) using ne/ce, their profession, and one possessive sentence about something they own, recycling the genitive linker from Chapter 4.
Unit II Performance Task
Aikin Aiwatarwa na Sashe na 2
Daga Gida zuwa Kasuwa — From Home to Market
This integrated scenario requires you to combine every major communicative function from Unit II in a single connected oral and written task.
- Stage 1 — Planning a meal (oral, with a partner or recorded solo): Describe your home briefly using akwai/babu. State your daily routine in one or two sentences. Announce what you want to cook today using so, and discover (aloud) that you are missing one ingredient, using a repair or realization expression from this chapter.
- Stage 2 — A market purchase (oral, role-play or recorded solo with both roles): Go to the market. Ask the price of at least two items. Request a specific quantity for at least one item. Use at least one direct-object pronoun in your exchange. Close the transaction using Shi ke nan or an equivalent closing expression.
- Stage 3 — Written account (100-120 words): Write a connected paragraph narrating the same sequence — home, routine, food plan, missing ingredient, and market purchase — as a single coherent account. Include at least one akwai/babu sentence, one continuative routine sentence, one negative continuative or so sentence, one direct-object pronoun, and one information question using a relative-continuative form.
Evaluation criteria: accurate and purposeful use of akwai/babu, possession with da, location; correct continuative subject forms with verified verbal nouns; correct negative continuative construction; correct direct-object pronoun use; correct relative-continuative form in at least one information question; accurate gender and plural agreement throughout; accurate Boko spelling including hooked letters and 'y; natural use of at least one repair or transaction-closing expression; overall coherence and connection between the four domains rather than four disconnected sentences.
Answer Key / Amsoshi
Atisayen A — Zaɓi kayan aiki na nahawu
- Babu gishiri a kicin. (babu)
- Kasuwa tana kusa da gidana. (location)
- Muna da kujera biyu a falo. (possession with da)
- Akwai firiji a nan? (akwai)
- Ba ni da kuɗi yau. (possession with da, negative)
Atisayen B — Haɗa jimloli (sample answers)
- Ina son shinkafa, amma ba na son miyar kifi.
- Babu albasa a gida, don haka sai mu je kasuwa.
- Yana aiki da safe kuma yana hutawa da yamma.
- Ta saya kayan lambu, amma ba ta saya nama ba.
Atisayen C — Amsa da wakilin abu
- I, ina son ta.
- I, ta saya ta.
- A'a, ba mu da su.
- I, yana ganin ta.
Atisayen D — Yi tambaya mai dacewa
- Me kake/kike girki?
- Ina take zuwa?
- Nawa yake biya?
- Ina kuke zaune?
Atisayen E — Gyara kuskure
- Error: Ba akwai shinkafa a gida. Correction: Babu shinkafa a gida. (akwai is not negated with ba; babu is the dedicated negative form)
- Error: Ina son shi albasa. Correction: Ina son albasa. or Ina son ta. (a direct-object pronoun replaces the noun; it does not accompany it)
- Error: Yana kake girki yanzu. Correction: Yana girki yanzu. (no question word is present, so the ordinary continuative form matching the subject — yana — is required, not the relative form kake)
- Error: Mu da kuɗi sosai. Correction: Muna da kuɗi sosai. (possession with da requires the continuative subject form muna, not the independent pronoun mu)
Tambayoyin fahimta na tattaunawa (Dialogue comprehension)
- Zainab's house has three rooms and one kitchen. It lacks a garage.
- Every morning Zainab gets up early and drinks coffee in the living room.
- Zainab discovers there is no onion at home. She first signals confusion with Ban gane ba, said as she realizes the problem.
- They buy onion and tomatoes. The onion costs 500 naira per bowl; they ask for one and a half bowls. The total given for the full purchase is 600 naira (from the listening passage's parallel example, not this exact dialogue — students should report the dialogue's stated price and quantity for onions and note that the total is not explicitly stated in the dialogue itself).
- Kina son ki zo tare da ni? — Do you want to come with me? Subject form: kina (second-person feminine singular continuative).
- Akwai lambu kadan a baya. (akwai); Babu gareji. (babu).
Kula na sauraro (Listening responses)
Kula na A: Rooms: two bedrooms and a kitchen. Missing: a garden (babu lambu). Wake time: 6:00 a.m. Drinks: tea (shayi). Leaves for work: 8:00 a.m.
Kula na B: (1) The speaker wants to cook a meal for the evening. (2) Rice and onions are missing. (3) The repair expression used is Ban gane abin da ya ɓace ba (recognition of the negative pattern combined with "I didn't understand what was missing").
Kula na C: (a) T. (b) F — the buyer asks for two bowls, not three. (c) T.
Tambayoyin karatu (Reading comprehension)
- Halima's house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. It has no garage but has a small garden.
- Halima drinks coffee in the morning. She explicitly says she does not want tea (ba shayi ba).
- Rice, onions, and tomatoes.
- Yusuf's house has a refrigerator and a washing machine but no television in the living room.
- Yusuf wanted to cook fish stew but did not find fish at home (recognition-only negative completive). He went to the market and bought two fish and some onions.
- Shi ke nan. Na gode. appears in both Rubutu na 2 and the model dialogue, used identically to close a market transaction politely.
Bitar gaba ɗaya — Sashi na B
- (a) Akwai (b) Babu
- (a) Ba na son shinkafa da yamma ba. (b) Ba ya zuwa kasuwa yau ba.
- (a) Ina son ta. (b) Ka saya ta?
- (a) Me kake/kike girki? (b) Ina take zuwa?
- (a) Muna (b) Tana
Bitar gaba ɗaya — Sashi na D (sample account)
Ina zaune a gida mai ɗaki biyu da kicin. Akwai babban falo, amma babu lambu. Kowace rana, ina tashi da ƙarfe shida, ina shan kofi a falo. Ina son girki shinkafa da miya da yamma yau, amma ban gane ba — ba mu da albasa a gida! Don haka, sai mu je kasuwa. A kasuwa, na tambaya, "Nawa kuɗin albasa?" Mai sayarwa ya ce naira ɗari uku ne. Na saya ta, kuma na saya tumatir kadan. Me kuma za mu sayi? Shi ke nan — mun gama siyayya.
Other accurate, well-formed accounts are equally acceptable, provided they connect all four domains and meet the editing checklist criteria. Note that mun gama in the sample is a recognition-only completive form previewed for natural closure; learners are not required to reproduce it and may instead end with a continuative or formulaic closing such as Shi ke nan alone.
Looking Ahead
Abin da ka/ki koya yanzu — What you know now
You have now completed Unit II. You can describe a home using existence, nonexistence, location, and possession; talk about daily routines using continuative subject forms and verbal nouns; express food preferences and negation; and complete a market transaction using quantities, prices, and direct-object pronouns. More importantly, this chapter has asked you to do something new with old material: combine all of these systems into one connected, natural stretch of communication, including the ability to signal confusion and request repair when something goes wrong. This combining skill — not just knowing individual patterns — is what moves you from reciting Hausa to actually using it.