Free survival kit

Haoussa survival kit

The 20 essential phrases and 100 key words to get by in Haoussa when travelling.

20 phrases
100 key words in the PDF

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Greetings

Haoussa	English
Sannu	hello
Sannu da zuwa	welcome
Assalamu alaikum	peace be upon you
Ina kwana	good morning (lit. how was the night)
Ina wuni	good afternoon (lit. how was the day)
Barka da yamma	good evening
Yaya kake	how are you (m)
Yaya kike	how are you (f)

Asking for directions

Haoussa	English
wa	who
me	what
ina	where
yaushe	when

Emergencies

Haoussa	English
kai	head
ido	eye
kunne	ear
baki	mouth

At the restaurant

Haoussa	English
ruwa	water
madara	milk
shinkafa	rice
gurasa	bread

30 key words to remember

Haoussa	English
Lahiya lau	very well / in good health
Na gode	thank you
Ba kome	you're welcome / it's nothing
Eh	yes
A'a	no
Don Allah	please
Yi haƙuri	I'm sorry / excuse me
Sai gobe	see you tomorrow
Gaisuwa	greetings
Barka	congratulations / blessing
zo	to come
tafi	to go
ci	to eat
sha	to drink
yi barci	to sleep
yi magana	to speak / to talk
saurara	to listen
gani	to see
ji	to hear / to feel
sani	to know
so	to want / to love
yi	to do / to make
ba	to give
saya	to buy
sayar	to sell
yi aiki	to work
karatu	to study / to read
rubuta	to write
fahimta	to understand
iya	can / be able to

In context: 5 scenes to get by

On arrival

You land in Kano or Abuja early in the day. An agent in a boubou greets you with a warm "Sannu". You reply with the standard morning greetings before asking for directions.

Sannu : hello
Sannu da zuwa : welcome
Assalamu alaikum : peace be upon you
Ina kwana : good morning (lit. how was the night)

In a taxi

You climb into a shared taxi or a kabu kabu (motorbike taxi). The driver asks who, what, where and when you need to arrive. You reply while showing him the address.

wa : who
me : what
ina : where
yaushe : when

At the café

You stop at a roadside mai shayi (tea seller). You order water, milk, rice and some bread. The conversation revolves around the day's specials.

ruwa : water
madara : milk
shinkafa : rice
gurasa : bread

In an emergency

You have had a headache since waking up and your eyes sting. The pharmacist greets you in Hausa, you point to the parts of the body bothering you and ask for the right medicine.

kai : head
ido : eye
kunne : ear
baki : mouth

On departure

It is the afternoon of departure. You thank your host in Hausa. You wish him a good end of day, a good evening, then say goodbye to the men and women of the household before leaving.

Ina wuni : good afternoon (lit. how was the day)
Barka da yamma : good evening
Yaya kake : how are you (m)
Yaya kike : how are you (f)

Cultural notes

The Hausa world is majority Sunni Muslim. During Ramadan, do not eat or drink in public during the day. Dress modestly, especially women (shoulders and knees covered).
Greetings are long and highly codified: people ask about family, work, health and tiredness before getting to the point. Rushing a greeting is considered rude.
Use the right hand to eat, give or receive. The left hand, reserved for hygiene, is considered impure in social and food interactions.
Northern Nigerian cuisine revolves around tuwo (millet or rice ball) served with sauce. People often eat seated on the floor around a large communal dish.
Bargaining is expected at every market, especially in Kano or Kaduna. Stay polite, take your time, and avoid hurried or aggressive attitudes.
Respect for elders is central. Avoid interrupting, slightly lower your eyes when addressing an older person, and only shake their hand if they extend theirs first.
The expression "Sannu da aiki" (greetings to the one who works) is a standard politeness when you meet someone hard at work. Reply: "Yauwa, sannu".
In northern Nigeria, dress codes and gender separation can be strict (Sharia is applied in several states). Research the local context before traveling.

Keep the whole kit on your phone

The 20 phrases, 100 key words and the cultural notes in a PDF to keep offline or print. We also send it to you by e-mail.

A smiling grandmother holds a baby in her arms

A family language

Reconnect with Hausa

The language of your parents, your grandparents or your partner. The one you want to pass on to your children.

A couple laughing, she hugs him from behind — Speaking the language of the country means reconnecting with its people.

A mother smiles at the little girl in her arms — Now, at home, we speak Hausa.

A young woman smiles, phone in hand — “Hi Mum, I speak Hausa!”

A father in white attire holds his son by the sea — Children who speak Hausa are the greatest cultural wealth you can bring to your family.

A grandmother in a yellow headscarf holds a young child close — Your grandparents’ Hausa should not end with them.

Finally understand what is said at the table, and answer back.
Your in-laws speak Hausa to you. Answer them in Hausa.

A language is passed down from generation to generation. Now it is your turn.

Start Haoussa for free

About this kit

Hausa is spoken by around 80 million people (as first or second language) across Nigeria, Niger and the Sahel. It is the leading trade language of West Africa, opening up Kano, Zinder, Sokoto, Maradi and every market in northern Nigeria.

Hausa is one of Africa's largest languages, with around 80 million speakers between first and second language. Spoken in northern Nigeria and southern Niger, but also in pockets across Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and Sudan, it acts as the commercial lingua franca across the West African Sahel. Hausa belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family, Chadic branch: it therefore shares a distant kinship with Arabic and Hebrew, visible in some grammatical features.

The language is marked by a two-register tonal system (high and low) that changes the meaning of words, and by specific glottalized consonants (implosive b, d, k, written with subscript dots). Today Hausa is most often written in a standardized Latin alphabet (boko), but a long tradition of writing in Arabic script (ajami) survives, particularly in religious circles. Grammar is simpler than feared: verbs are lightly conjugated, the word order is subject-verb-object, and person markers are fairly clear.

Traveling in northern Nigeria or Niger without a few Hausa words means missing the heart of the experience. Markets in Kano or Maradi, long ritual greetings, welcomes inside family compounds, everything passes through the language. Saying "Sannu", thanking with "Na gode" or replying "Lahiya lau" when asked how you are: these simple gestures immediately change your status in your hosts' eyes. This kit gathers the bare minimum phrases to handle arrival in Abuja or Niamey, a motorbike-taxi ride, ordering tuwo and a medical emergency.

Sources and references

Every translation is cross-checked against at least two concordant sources among the references below.

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