Yara suna yin rawa.

The children are dancing.

Breakdown of Yara suna yin rawa.

• yaro: the child
• su: they
• yi: to do
• rawa: dancing; the dance

Questions & Answers about Yara suna yin rawa.

What does each word in Yara suna yin rawa mean?

A natural breakdown is:

• Yara = children
• suna = they are
• yin = doing / the act of doing
• rawa = dance / dancing

So the whole sentence means The children are dancing.

In Hausa, this idea is built a little differently from English. Literally, it is closer to Children are doing dance/dancing.

Why is there both suna and yin? Aren’t they both part of the verb?

Yes, they are both part of the verbal expression, but they do different jobs.

• suna shows the subject plus a continuous/imperfective kind of meaning here: they are
• yin comes from yi (to do) and is used before many actions expressed as verbal nouns
• rawa is the action noun dance/dancing

So Hausa often says something like:

• suna yin rawa = they are dancing
• literally: they are doing dancing

This is a very common Hausa pattern.

Why isn’t it just one single verb for to dance?