Musa ma yana gida.

Musa is at home too.

Breakdown of Musa ma yana gida.

• ne: to be
• Musa: Musa
• gida: the home
• ma: too

Questions & Answers about Musa ma yana gida.

What does each word in Musa ma yana gida mean literally?

Word by word, you can think of it like this:

• Musa – the male name Musa (equivalent to “Moses”).
• ma – a particle meaning also / too / as well / even.
• yana – literally “he is (doing/being)”; it’s a 3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun + an imperfective/progressive marker. In many contexts it just works like “is”.
• gida – home / house.

So a very literal feel is: “Musa also he‑is home.”
Natural English: “Musa is also at home.” / “Musa too is at home.”

Where is the word “he” in this sentence?

Hausa usually does not use a separate word for “he” before the verb the way English does.

In yana, the ya- part already means “he” (3rd person masculine singular), and -na marks the imperfective/progressive aspect. So:

• ya ≈ “he”
• na ≈ “(is) doing / (is) being” (imperfective marker)
• yana ≈ “he is (doing/being)”

That’s why you don’t see a separate shi (“he”) in the sentence; it’s built into yana.

What exactly does ma mean here, and what does it apply to?

ma is a focus particle that usually means “also, too, as well, even”.

It attaches to the element that it follows. In Musa ma yana gida, it directly follows Musa, so it tells you that Musa, in particular, is being added to some existing group or situation.

Context decides the nuance:

• If you already know that Ali is at home, then
  Musa ma yana gida = “Musa is also at home (as well as Ali).”
• If you were assuming Musa wasn’t at home, the same sentence can be heard as something like: “Musa is at home too, actually / even Musa is at home.”

So the “also/even” sense is attached to Musa because ma comes right after Musa.

Could I move ma somewhere else, like Musa yana ma gida or Ma Musa yana gida?

For a learner, the safest and most natural pattern is:

• [focused word] + ma + rest of the clause

So here:

• Musa ma yana gida – “Musa also is at home.” (Musa is the focused word.)

Other placements you suggested are not standard for this meaning:

• Musa yana ma gida – this doesn’t mean “Musa is also at home”; it sounds wrong or would be understood differently (if at all).
• Ma Musa yana gida – can sound odd/marked in most contexts for learners; stick with Musa ma.

General rule: put ma immediately after the thing you mean “also/too/even”.
Examples:

• Ni ma zan tafi. – “I will go too.”
• Su ma suna nan. – “They are here too.”

What is the tense/aspect of yana? Does it just mean “is”?

Yana is an imperfective / progressive form:

• It usually expresses an ongoing action or a current / general state.
• In many simple present sentences, it functions like “is” in English.

Examples:

• Yana cin abinci. – “He is eating (food).”
• Yana nan. – “He is here.”
• Yana gida. – “He is at home.”

In Musa ma yana gida, it expresses Musa’s current state/location: he is (currently) at home.
So in this kind of stative/locative sentence, you can just treat yana as “is”.

Why is there no separate word for “at” or “in” before gida? Why not yana a gida?

Hausa does have a preposition a (“in, at”), and yana a gida is grammatically correct and understandable.

However, with very common location words like gida (“home”), Hausa often omits the preposition a after yana in everyday speech. The bare noun then functions as a locative expression:

• Yana gida. – “He is at home.”
• Yana kasuwa. – “He is at the market.”

So you may hear both:

• Musa yana gida.
• Musa yana a gida.

In practice, yana gida is very common and perfectly natural for “is at home.”
For a learner, it’s fine to remember: after yana, you can often say the place directly without a, especially with words like gida.

How would this sentence change if we were talking about a woman instead of Musa?

Only yana changes; it agrees with the gender of the subject.

For a female subject, use tana instead of yana:

• Maryam ma tana gida. – “Maryam is also at home.”
• Ita ma tana gida. – “She is also at home.”

Pattern:

• yana – “he is (doing/being)”
• tana – “she is (doing/being)”

How do I say “Musa is not at home either / Musa is also not at home”?

To negate yana, you usually use ba ya (for 3rd person masculine singular).
Then add ma the same way to mean “also / too”.

A natural negative version is:

• Musa ma ba ya gida.

Possible translations:

• “Musa also is not at home.”
• “Musa isn’t at home either.”

Some speakers add a second ba at the very end for emphasis:

• Musa ma ba ya gida ba.

You don’t say yana in the negative; you change it to ba ya before the complement.

Can I drop the name and just say “He is also at home”?

Yes. Instead of the name, you can use the independent pronoun plus ma:

• Shi ma yana gida. – “He is also at home.”

Here:

• shi – “he” (independent pronoun)
• ma – “also”
• yana – “he is (doing/being)”
• gida – “home”

The pattern is the same: [pronoun] + ma + yana + place:

• Ni ma ina gida. – “I am also at home.”
• Su ma suna gida. – “They are also at home.”

Does Musa ma yana gida mean “Musa himself is at home” as in emphasis, or just “Musa is also at home”?

By default, Musa ma yana gida is understood as:

• “Musa is also at home / Musa too is at home.”

But ma can carry a bit of emphasis depending on context and intonation, so you can sometimes feel nuances like:

• “Musa, of all people, is at home.”
• “Even Musa is at home.”

So the core meaning is “also/too”, and with certain contexts it can slide toward “even / actually / in fact”, which can feel similar to English “Musa himself is at home” when you are surprised or stressing Musa in contrast to expectations.