Learn Hardcore Hausa: Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi. - My father is sitting in the room reading a book.

Baba na – my father
Uwa ta – my mother (from uwa = mother, ta = my for feminine nouns in some dialects)
Aboki na – my friend (male friend)

You will also see a suffix form:

Babana – my father

Both Baba na and Babana can mean my father.
Babana is more “tightly joined”, while Baba na can sound a bit more careful or emphatic in some contexts.

Why do we have yana twice in the sentence? Can we say it only once?

The sentence has two ongoing actions:

yana zaune a ɗaki – he is sitting in the room
yana karanta littafi – he is reading a book

Each action gets its own progressive marker yana (3rd person masculine singular, “he is …-ing”).

So:

Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki, yana karanta littafi.
→ My father is sitting in the room, (and) he is reading a book.

If you drop the second yana:

Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki karanta littafi.

This is understandable in casual speech, but it can sound a bit compressed or less clear.
The most natural and clear version keeps both yana.

What is the exact role of yana in this sentence?

yana comes from ya (he) + -na (progressive aspect). It marks an action or state that is in progress or ongoing.

In this sentence:

yana zaune – he is sitting (currently)
yana karanta – he is reading (currently)

Compare:

Ya zauna. – He sat. (completed action, past)
Yana zaune. – He is (in a state of) sitting. (ongoing)

So yana is similar to English “is …-ing”.

What is the difference between zaune and zauna?

Both are related to the idea of sitting, but they are different forms:

zauna – the basic verb “to sit / to sit down / to live (reside)”
- Ya zauna. – He sat / He lived (somewhere).
zaune – a verbal adjective / stative form meaning “in a sitting state”
- Yana zaune. – He is sitting (he is in a sitting position).

In Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki, we are describing his current state (he is in a sitting posture), not the action of sitting down at that moment.

Why is the preposition a used before ɗaki? Does a mean “in” or “at”?

a is a very common Hausa preposition that can mean “in / at / on”, depending on context.

a ɗaki – in the room / in a room
a gida – at home / in the house
a kasuwa – at the market

Here, a ɗaki is most naturally understood as “in the room”.

If you want to be more explicit about “inside”, you can say:

a cikin ɗaki – literally in the inside of the room → inside the room.

What does the special letter ɗ in ɗaki represent? How is it different from d?

Hausa has two different d sounds, written d and ɗ:

d – an ordinary voiced “d” sound (like English d in dog).
ɗ – an implosive “d” sound: you slightly “suck in” air as you make the d-sound. It’s written with a small tail under the letter.

ɗaki (room) starts with this implosive consonant ɗ.
Pronouncing ɗ correctly takes practice, but many learners are understood even if they approximate it with a normal d at first.

How should we understand littafi here: “a book” or “the book”? Why isn’t there an article?

Hausa generally does not use separate words for “a” and “the” like English does. The noun littafi simply means “book”, and context tells you whether it is definite or indefinite.

In this sentence, natural translations are:

“My father is sitting in the room reading a book.” (any book)
or, depending on context,
“My father is sitting in the room reading the book.” (a specific one already known)

To make it clearly definite, you can add a definite suffix:

littafin nan – this book
yana karanta littafin da ya saya jiya – he is reading the book he bought yesterday.

But in isolation, littafi is neutral: it can be “a book” or “the book”.

Why is it yana karanta littafi and not yana karanta littafin?

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

yana karanta littafi – he is reading a book (indefinite / not specified)
yana karanta littafin – he is reading the book (more definite, often a specific known book)

The -n at the end of littafin is a definite/genitive suffix that often makes the noun more specific.

Since the sentence is given without extra context, littafi (without -n) is a natural, general choice.

Could the subject Baba na be left out, like just saying Yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi?

Yes, in real conversation, if it is already clear who you are talking about, you can drop Baba na and just say:

Yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi.
→ He is sitting in the room reading a book.

Hausa shows the subject on the verb/aspect marker (here yana = “he is …-ing”), so you don’t always have to repeat the noun phrase if context already tells you who “he” is.

However, as a full, standalone sentence introducing new information, Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi is clearer.

How would the sentence change if the subject were “my mother” instead of “my father”?

You would change both the noun and the progressive marker to match feminine:

Uwa ta tana zaune a ɗaki tana karanta littafi.
- Uwa ta – my mother
- tana – she is …-ing (3rd person feminine singular progressive)

So:

Baba na yana … → My father, he is …
Uwa ta tana … → My mother, she is …

Can this sentence describe two actions happening at the same time, like “sitting and reading simultaneously”?

Yes. In Hausa, you can show simultaneous ongoing actions by repeating the progressive marker yana with different verbal elements:

Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi.

This naturally means:

He is (currently) in a sitting position in the room
and (at the same time) he is reading a book.

You could optionally add kuma (and) in speech for extra clarity:

Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki kuma yana karanta littafi.
→ My father is sitting in the room and he is reading a book.

How would you make this sentence negative, like “My father is not sitting in the room reading a book”?

To negate the progressive in Hausa, you use ba … ba around a different form of the verb:

Baba na ba ya zaune a ɗaki, ba ya karanta littafi.
- ba ya zaune – he is not sitting
- ba ya karanta – he is not reading

Literally:

My father, he is not sitting in the room, he is not reading a book.

You can also shorten the second clause in context:

Baba na ba ya zaune a ɗaki, ba ya karantawa.
(still: he is not reading)

Is the word order in Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki yana karanta littafi fixed, or could I move parts around?

The basic order in Hausa is:

Subject – aspect/verb – complements

Here:

Baba na (subject)
yana (progressive marker)
zaune a ɗaki (first predicate phrase: sitting in the room)
yana karanta littafi (second predicate phrase: reading a book)

You can play a little with pauses and intonation, but you normally do not move the verb or aspect marker in front of the subject, and you keep the complements near their verbs:

Natural variants would be things like (with commas/pauses in speech):

Baba na yana zaune a ɗaki, yana karanta littafi.
A ɗaki, Baba na yana zaune yana karanta littafi. (Fronting a ɗaki for emphasis: In the room, my father is sitting, reading a book.)

But something like:

Yana zaune Baba na a ɗaki…

is much less natural in standard Hausa, and might be confusing.