Birki da sitiyari suna aiki.

and

Breakdown of Birki da sitiyari suna aiki.

• aiki: to work
• su: they
• birki: the brake

Questions & Answers about Birki da sitiyari suna aiki.

I thought suna meant name. Why does it mean something different here?

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.

Why is suna used even though Birki da sitiyari is already the subject?

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.

Why is suna plural?