Dillalin yana kasuwa.

The ending -n is a common Hausa marker of definiteness/specific reference, especially with many masculine nouns. So dillali means broker/dealer/middleman, while dillalin is roughly the broker or the dealer.

English uses a separate word like the, but Hausa often attaches that idea to the noun itself.

Yana is the Hausa form used here for he is in a present or ongoing situation. It is the 3rd person singular masculine form.

For a beginner, it is helpful to think of it as:

• yana = he is / he is being / he is doing

It is used not only with actions, but also with locations and states.

Because Hausa often expresses location without a separate preposition in sentences like this. After yana, a place noun can come directly:

• yana kasuwa = he is at the market

So nothing is missing. English needs at, but Hausa often does not in this pattern.

Yes. Yana is masculine singular, so it matches a subject understood as he or a masculine noun.

Related forms you will often see are:

• yana = he is
• tana = she is
• suna = they are

So the sentence is talking about a masculine singular subject.

It is describing a location/state, not an action.

A useful clue is that kasuwa is a noun meaning market, not a verb. So yana kasuwa means the person is at the market, not that he is doing some action called kasuwa.

No. That is an important point for learners.

After yana, Hausa can have:

• a verb phrase: Yana aiki = He is working
• a location noun: Yana kasuwa = He is at the market

So in this sentence, yana is followed by a place expression, not an action verb.

Because this is not an identification sentence such as He is the broker. It is a location sentence: The broker is at the market.

Compare:

• Dillalin ne = He is the broker / It is the broker
• Dillalin yana kasuwa = The broker is at the market

So ne is for identification/focus, while yana is the right form here for present location.

The pattern is:

Subject + Hausa present/continuous form + place

So here:

• Dillalin = the subject
• yana = present/ongoing masculine singular form
• kasuwa = the place

That word order is very common in simple Hausa statements.

Hausa does not always mark nouns the same way English does. In a location expression like this, kasuwa can appear without an extra marker and still naturally mean the market or simply market, depending on context.

So English may require the, but Hausa does not have to show it separately here.