Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.

Musa has a question about work.

Breakdown of Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.

• Musa: Musa
• da: to have
• aiki: the work
• tambaya: the question
• kan: about

Questions & Answers about Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.

What does Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki mean word‑for‑word?

A fairly literal breakdown is:

• Musa – the male name Musa (Moses)
• yana – he is (3rd person masculine singular, progressive/stative marker)
• da – with → together with yana, it means has
• tambaya – question
• kan – on / about / regarding
• aiki – work / job / task

So, literally:
“Musa he-is with question on work.”

In natural English: “Musa has a question about work.”

What does yana da literally mean, and why does it translate as has?

Literally, yana da is:

• ya – he
• na – progressive/stative marker (is doing / is in a state of)
  → combined as yana – he is
• da – with

So yana da is “he is with (something)”, which is how Hausa normally expresses possession.

This pattern is regular:

• Ina da mota. – I have a car.
• Kana da lokaci? – Do you (m.sg.) have time?
• Suna da yara. – They have children.

With a named subject, you add the name before it:

• Musa yana da tambaya. – Musa has a question.
• Maryamu tana da mota. – Maryam has a car.

So in Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki, yana da is simply the standard “has” construction.

What tense or time does Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki express? Is it “right now” or something more general?

Yana da expresses a present state (“is with / has”), and context decides how specific it is:

• In most contexts like this, it means right now:
  Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.
  → Musa has (i.e. currently has) a question about work.

• It can also refer to a more general fact, especially with stable possessions:
  Musa yana da yara. – Musa has children. (not just right now)

Here, because tambaya (a question) is something you “have” at a particular moment in a conversation, the default reading is present, right now:
“Musa currently has a question about work.”

What is the difference between yana da tambaya and yana tambaya?

This is a very important contrast:

• yana da tambaya

  • literally: he is with a question
  • meaning: he has a question (he wants to ask something)

• yana tambaya

  • tambaya here is used as a verbal noun: asking / questioning
  • meaning: he is asking (a question) / he is questioning

So:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.
  → Musa has a question about work. (he wants to ask something)

• Musa yana tambaya kan aiki.
  → Musa is asking about work. (he is actively asking right now)

English distinguishes have a question vs. ask a question; Hausa does the same with yana da tambaya vs. yana tambaya.

What does kan mean in this sentence, and could we use something else like game da?

In Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki, kan is a preposition meaning “about / regarding / on the topic of”.

So:

• tambaya kan aiki – a question about work
• jawabi kan siyasa – a speech about politics
• tattaunawa kan aure – a discussion about marriage

You can often replace kan with game da:

• Musa yana da tambaya game da aiki.

This is also natural and widely used. Differences:

• kan – short, somewhat more compact; very common in formal and semi‑formal speech (news, public talks, writing).
• game da – also common; can feel a bit more conversational or explanatory; often interchangeable with kan in practice.

So both:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.
• Musa yana da tambaya game da aiki.

mean essentially the same thing: “Musa has a question about work.”

What exactly does aiki mean here – “work”, “job”, or “task”? How would I say “about his job” instead?

Aiki is a broad noun meaning:

• work (in general)
• job / employment (depending on context)
• task / duty / assignment

In tambaya kan aiki, without any possessive suffix, it sounds like:

• “a question about work” in general,
  or “a question about (someone’s) job/work” where the owner is obvious from context.

If you specifically mean his job / his work, you normally mark possession:

• aikinsa – his work / his job
• kan aikinsa – about his work / about his job

So:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aikinsa.
  → Musa has a question about his job.

Whereas:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.
  → Musa has a question about work (more general or unspecified).

There’s no word for “a” or “the” in the Hausa sentence. How do we know it’s “a question” and not “the question”?

Hausa does not use separate words like “a” or “the”. Bare nouns can be:

• indefinite (a question)
• definite / specific (the question)

Context does the work.

In Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki:

• tambaya is being introduced; it’s not something previously mentioned.
• So the natural English translation is “Musa has a question about work.”

If the speaker wanted to make the indefiniteness even clearer, they might say:

• Musa yana da wata tambaya kan aiki.
  
  • wata – a certain / one (fem.)
  • → Musa has a (certain) question about work.

For a clearly definite “the question” you’d rely on prior context, or sometimes use a construction like:

• tambayar da muka tattauna – the question we discussed

But in isolated sentences like this, tambaya is best rendered as “a question.”

Why do we say Musa yana da… instead of just something like Musa da tambaya…? Is Musa yana da… like saying “Musa he has…”?

To express “have”, Hausa needs a subject pronoun + aspect marker plus da:

• ina da – I have
• kana da – you (m.sg.) have
• yana da – he has
• tana da – she has
• muna da – we have
• kuna da – you (pl.) have
• suna da – they have

When the subject is a name or noun, you still use the appropriate pronoun form after it:

• Musa yana da tambaya. – Musa has a question.
• Malamin nan yana da mota. – That teacher has a car.

This is not felt as a clumsy “Musa he has…” in Hausa; it’s just the normal grammar.

Saying Musa da tambaya by itself would be incomplete; you’d need something like:

• Musa da tambaya ya zo. – Musa, with a question, came. (a different structure)

So Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki is the standard way to say “Musa has a question about work.”

How do I make it plural: “Musa has questions about work”?

The plural of tambaya (question) is tambayoyi (questions).

So:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki.
  → Musa has a question about work.

• Musa yana da tambayoyi kan aiki.
  → Musa has questions about work.

If you want to stress “some questions”, you can add wasu:

• Musa yana da wasu tambayoyi kan aiki.
  → Musa has some questions about work.

How would the sentence change if the person were female, like “Maryam has a question about work”?

Only the gendered pronoun part changes. For a female subject:

• tana da – she has

So:

• Maryamu tana da tambaya kan aiki.
  → Maryam has a question about work.

Compare:

• Musa yana da tambaya kan aiki. – Musa (he) has…
• Maryamu tana da tambaya kan aiki. – Maryam (she) has…

Are there other natural ways to express the same idea, like “Musa wants to ask a question about work” or “Musa asked a question about work”?

Yes. The original sentence is state/possession (“has a question”). Hausa also has more action‑focused alternatives:

1. Musa wants to ask a question about work

   • Musa yana son yin tambaya kan aiki.
     
     • yana son – he wants / he likes
     • yin tambaya – to do asking / to ask a question

2. Musa asked a question about work (past)

   • Musa ya yi tambaya kan aiki.
     
     • ya yi – he did / he made → here, he asked
   • Literally: Musa made a question about work.

3. More explicit “Musa has one (particular) question about work”

   • Musa yana da wata tambaya kan aiki.
     
     • wata tambaya – one / a certain question

All of these are natural; which one you choose depends on whether you want to talk about:

• having a question (yana da tambaya),
• wanting to ask (yana son yin tambaya), or
• actually asking (ya yi tambaya).