Magirbin yana kusa da fartanya.

The base form is often magirbi, but in a sentence Hausa very often adds an ending like -n to mark a noun as specific/definite, roughly similar to English the.

So Magirbin is not a different word altogether; it is the noun in a sentence form. A useful rough idea is:

• magirbi = dictionary form
• magirbin = the specific/known magirbi

As a broad pattern, many masculine nouns show -n in this kind of form, while many feminine nouns show -r.

Because Hausa normally uses a subject marker/aspect marker even when the full subject noun is already stated.

So the structure is not just Subject + predicate. It is more like:

• Magirbin = the subject noun
• yana = a marker showing the subject is masculine singular and that the sentence is in a present/imperfective-type form
• kusa da fartanya = the rest of the predicate

To an English speaker, this can feel like repeating the subject, but in Hausa it is normal grammar.

In a sentence like this, yana is often best understood as something like he is.

More generally, though, yana is not just a simple standalone word-for-word equivalent of English is. It is a common Hausa form used for a masculine singular subject in present/imperfective situations. Depending on context, it can correspond to:

• he is
• he does
• he is doing

In this sentence, it is giving a present state: the subject is near something.

Yes — that is a very good way to learn it.

kusa means near/close, and when Hausa says what something is near, it normally uses da after it:

• kusa da + noun

So kusa da fartanya means near the hoe / near a hoe depending on context.

For a learner, it is easiest to treat kusa da as a set pattern meaning near / close to.

Not really in translation, even though da very often can mean with in other contexts.

da is a very common Hausa word with several uses. In this sentence, the important thing is that it is the word used after kusa. So instead of translating da by itself, translate the whole expression:

• kusa da = near / close to

That will keep you from overthinking it.

Because Hausa does not handle articles the same way English does.

English usually wants an article such as a or the, but Hausa often:

• marks definiteness on the noun itself, or
• leaves it to context

That means a noun like fartanya does not always have a separate word in front of it matching English a/the. The context and the intended meaning tell you how to translate it naturally.

A helpful breakdown is:

• Magirbin = subject noun
• yana = subject/aspect marker
• kusa da fartanya = predicate phrase

So the overall pattern is:

• Subject + marker + predicate

That is a very common Hausa sentence pattern. For an English speaker, the biggest adjustment is remembering that Hausa often includes that marker such as yana even when the subject noun is already present.

The main change would be the subject marker.

• masculine singular: yana
• feminine singular: tana
• plural: suna

So kusa da fartanya can stay the same, while the middle word changes to match the subject.

This is one of the most useful patterns to notice early in Hausa.

You can say:

Magirbin ba ya kusa da fartanya.

You may also see baya written together in some materials.

That means the subject is not near the hoe.

So a simple contrast is:

• yana kusa da ... = is near ...
• ba ya kusa da ... = is not near ...