Masana'antu suna da muhimmanci ga tattalin arziki.

Industry is important to the economy.

Breakdown of Masana'antu suna da muhimmanci ga tattalin arziki.

• da: to have
• su: they
• muhimmanci: the importance
• ga: for

Questions & Answers about Masana'antu suna da muhimmanci ga tattalin arziki.

Is masana'antu singular or plural?

It is plural. The singular is masana'anta.

So:

• masana'anta = factory / industry
• masana'antu = factories / industries

In this sentence, the plural makes sense because the next word, suna, is also plural.

Why is suna used after masana'antu? Doesn’t the noun already tell us the subject?

Yes, masana'antu already names the subject, but Hausa commonly still uses a subject pronoun in the predicate.

So the structure is roughly:

• Masana'antu = industries
• suna = they are / they
• da muhimmanci = with importance / important

This is a very normal Hausa pattern. Even when the subject is a full noun, Hausa often repeats the agreement with a pronoun:

• Ali yana aiki = Ali is working
• Masana'antu suna da muhimmanci = Industries are important

Here suna shows that the subject is plural and helps mark the clause as a present/general statement.

What does da mean here?

Here da literally means something like with / having.

So suna da muhimmanci is literally: