Birki da sitiyari suna aiki.

That is a very common beginner confusion. Suna can indeed be related to name in other contexts, but here it is not the noun name. In this sentence, suna is a 3rd-person plural subject marker used in a present/imperfective-type construction.

So here:

• Birki da sitiyari = the subject
• suna aiki = are working / work / are functioning

Context tells you which suna you are dealing with.

In Hausa, it is normal to state the full subject and then still use a subject/agreement marker. So the sentence structure is roughly:

[subject] + [agreement marker] + [predicate]

Here:

• Birki da sitiyari = the brakes and steering
• suna = agrees with that subject
• aiki = functioning / working

So to an English speaker, it may feel a bit like The brakes and steering, they are working. That extra agreement is normal Hausa grammar.

Because the subject is made of two things joined by da:

• birki = brake(s)
• sitiyari = steering
• birki da sitiyari = brakes and steering

A subject joined by and is treated as plural, so Hausa uses the plural marker suna.

Yes, but it is not packaged the same way as in English. English uses are working, with a form of to be plus working. Hausa often uses an agreement/aspect marker plus a word like aiki to express that idea.

So the verbal meaning is carried by the whole expression suna aiki, not by a single English-style verb form.

A useful way to think of it is:

• English: are working
• Hausa: suna aiki

Aiki basically means work, function, or activity, depending on context. In this sentence, it means something like functioning properly.

So suna aiki here is best understood as:

• are working
• are functioning
• work

For car parts like birki and sitiyari, functioning properly is the idea.

Here it means and.

Da has several uses in Hausa, including meanings like and and with, but when it joins two nouns like this, the natural reading is coordination:

• birki da sitiyari = brakes and steering

So in this sentence, da is simply connecting the two parts of the subject.

Hausa does not use articles the same way English does. There is no direct everyday equivalent that must appear in every sentence the way the does in English.

So Birki da sitiyari suna aiki can be understood as:

• The brakes and the steering are working
• Brakes and steering are working

Which one sounds best in English depends on context, but Hausa itself does not need a separate word for the here.

Yes, they are commonly recognized as loanwords adapted into Hausa.

• birki comes from brake
• sitiyari comes from steering

Their spelling and pronunciation have been adjusted to fit Hausa sound patterns and writing conventions. That is very common in Hausa, especially for modern objects, vehicles, and technology.

Yes. Depending on context, suna aiki can be translated in slightly different natural English ways:

• The brakes and steering are working
• The brakes and steering work
• The brakes and steering are functioning

English forces you to choose a tense/aspect form more explicitly. Hausa often leaves some of that to context.

Because Hausa nouns do not always match English number patterns one-for-one, and loanwords often do not show the kind of plural marking an English speaker expects.

Also, in this sentence, the important plural idea comes from the whole subject:

birki da sitiyari = brakes and steering

That combined subject is plural, which is why the sentence uses suna. So even if the individual nouns do not visibly change form, the sentence still clearly behaves as plural overall.