Mai ɗaukar ma'aikata yana tambaya.

Literally, it is something like person who takes/hires workers.

A rough breakdown is:

• mai = a person associated with something, or someone who does something
• ɗaukar = taking, carrying, hiring
• ma'aikata = workers, employees

So mai ɗaukar ma'aikata is an idiomatic way to say employer or recruiter.

Mai is a very common Hausa word used to form nouns meaning someone who has, someone connected with, or someone who does something.

In a phrase like mai + verbal noun + object, it often means the person who does that action.

So:

• mai ɗaukar ma'aikata = the one who hires employees

This is why it works well for employer / recruiter.

Because in Hausa, it is normal to name the subject and then still use a subject marker in the predicate.

So the structure is roughly:

• Mai ɗaukar ma'aikata = the employer / recruiter
• yana tambaya = he is asking

A very literal English-style gloss would be:

• The employer, he is asking.

That sounds redundant in English, but it is normal Hausa grammar.

Yana shows an ongoing or incomplete action, so here it means something like is asking.

Compare:

• yana tambaya = he is asking / he asks
• ya tambaya = he asked / he has asked

So yana is used because the sentence is presenting the action as in progress or not completed.

Also, yana is the form used for a masculine singular subject.

It is best understood here as a verbal noun.

That means it looks like a noun in form, but in this kind of structure it expresses an action. After yana, tambaya means asking.

So:

• tambaya by itself can mean a question
• yana tambaya means he is asking

This is very common in Hausa: an aspect marker like yana is followed by a verbal noun.

Not in the same direct way English does.

Hausa usually does not use separate articles exactly like the and a/an. Whether something is definite or indefinite is often understood from context.

So Mai ɗaukar ma'aikata yana tambaya could be translated as:

• The employer is asking
• An employer is asking
• The recruiter is asking

The exact English article depends on the context.

Ma'aikata is plural. It means workers, employees, or sometimes staff.

The singular is:

• ma'aikaci = worker / employee

So in mai ɗaukar ma'aikata, the sense is someone who hires employees/workers.

Yes. The phrase itself can refer to either a male or female employer/recruiter. What changes is the agreement word.

In your sentence:

• yana = he is

If the recruiter were female, you would normally say:

• Mai ɗaukar ma'aikata tana tambaya.
• The employer/recruiter is asking. (female)

So the gender shows up in yana / tana, not in mai ɗaukar ma'aikata itself.

Two spelling points often confuse learners:

• ɗ is a special Hausa consonant, different from ordinary d. It is an implosive sound. If you are a beginner, using a careful d is an acceptable approximation at first.
• The apostrophe in ma'aikata marks a glottal stop, a brief catch in the throat.

So ma'aikata is pronounced roughly like:

• ma-ʔai-ka-ta

The break between ma and ai is important.

Yes, depending on context.

The most natural translation in isolation is usually:

• he is asking

But in the right context, it can also be understood more generally as:

• he asks

So the Hausa form is broader than a single English tense label. Context tells you whether the best English translation is is asking or asks.