Ginin sabo ne.

to be

Breakdown of Ginin sabo ne.

• sabo: new
• gini: the building; construction

Questions & Answers about Ginin sabo ne.

Why does the sentence use ginin instead of gini?

Gini means building. Ginin is the definite form, so here it means the building.

In Hausa, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending like -n or -r to the noun. So if the meaning is The building is new, ginin is the form you would expect.

Where is the word for is?

In a sentence like this, Hausa does not use a separate verb exactly like English is. Instead, the sentence is completed with ne.

So Ginin sabo ne is the normal Hausa way to say The building is new.

What exactly does ne do here?

At a beginner level, you can think of ne as the word that helps form a simple X is Y sentence.

So in this sentence:

• Ginin = the building
• sabo = new
• ne = completes the idea is new

More advanced grammar explanations give ne a broader role, but for this sentence, treating it as part of is is very useful.

Why is it sabo and not sabon?