ɗan uwa na yana karatu a makaranta kusa da gida.

My brother is studying at a school near the house.

Breakdown of ɗan uwa na yana karatu a makaranta kusa da gida.

• ne: to be
• gida: the house
• kusa: near
• da: with
• karatu: to study
• a: at
• makaranta: the school
• ɗan uwa: the brother

Questions & Answers about ɗan uwa na yana karatu a makaranta kusa da gida.

What does ɗan uwa literally mean, and does it always mean brother?

Literally, ɗan uwa is something like “child of the same mother” (or same parent).

In actual usage:

• ɗan uwa usually means a male close relative of about your generation:
  
  • brother
  • male cousin
• ’yar uwa is the female version:
  
  • sister
  • female cousin

So in many learning materials it’s translated as “brother”, but in real life it can also be used for cousins, depending on context and family culture.

What’s the difference between ɗan uwa na and ɗan uwana?

Both can be understood as “my (male) relative/brother/cousin”, but they are built slightly differently:

• ɗan uwa na

  • ɗan uwa = (male) relative / brother/cousin
  • na = the independent possessive “my”
  • Whole phrase: “my (male) relative / my brother”

• ɗan uwana

  • uwa = mother
  • -na (attached) = “my” → uwana = my mother
  • Whole phrase: “child of my mother” → my sibling / brother

In everyday speech, both can be used to refer to a brother or close male relative; the exact nuance is not crucial for a beginner. The version in the sentence, ɗan uwa na, is very natural.

How would I say “my sister” or “my female cousin” in the same pattern?

Use ’yar uwa instead of ɗan uwa:

• ’yar uwa ta – my (female) relative / sister / female cousin
  
  • ’yar uwa = female relative (sister/cousin)
  • ta = independent possessive “my” for feminine nouns

Example parallel to your sentence:

• ’yar uwa ta tana karatu a makaranta kusa da gida.
  → My sister is studying at a school near the house.

What is the letter ɗ in ɗan? How is it pronounced?

The letter ɗ represents a different sound from plain d:

• d is like English d in dog.
• ɗ is an implosive d:
  
  • put your tongue in the normal d position
  • at the same time, slightly pull air inward instead of pushing it out
  • the sound is “heavier” or “popped inwards”

English doesn’t have ɗ, so many learners approximate it with a strong d, but it’s good to learn to hear the difference, because d and ɗ can distinguish words in Hausa.

In ɗan uwa na, what exactly does na mean? Is it the same na that means “of”?

In ɗan uwa na, na is the independent possessive pronoun meaning “my”.

Hausa has a word na that can mean “of” in genitive phrases, but here it is not that “of”; it is:

• na = “my” for masculine or non-human nouns
  
  • e.g. ɗan uwa na – my brother / my male relative
  • littafi na – my book

So in this sentence, na simply marks possession: “my”.

What does yana mean in yana karatu? Is it one word or two?

Historically it comes from two words ya + na, but in modern writing it’s usually written as one word: yana.

• ya = “he” (3rd person masculine subject pronoun)
• na (here) = progressive/imperfective marker, roughly “is (doing)”

Together, yana means “he is (doing)”.

With other persons you get:

• ina karatu – I am studying
• kana karatu – you (m.) are studying
• kina karatu – you (f.) are studying
• tana karatu – she is studying
• muna / kuna / suna karatu – we / you (pl.) / they are studying

What is karatu exactly? Is it a verb or a noun?

karatu is a verbal noun (a noun form of a verb):

• The base verb is karanta = to read / to study.
• The verbal noun is karatu = reading, study, studying, education.

In Hausa, the progressive/habitual construction often uses:

[subject + (y)ana] + verbal noun

So:

• yana karatu
  
  • literally: he is in the state of study / he is doing study
  • natural translation: he is studying or he studies

So karatu is grammatically a noun, but in this structure it corresponds to an English -ing form (studying).

Could I say yana karanta instead of yana karatu?

No, not in this progressive construction.

• karanta is the finite verb “to read / to study”.
• karatu is the verbal noun “studying / reading / education”.

The pattern with (y)ana normally requires the verbal noun:

• ✅ yana karatu – he is studying
• ❌ yana karanta – ungrammatical in standard Hausa in this function

You can use karanta with other structures, for example:

• ya karanta littafi – he read a book / he has read a book

What does the preposition a in a makaranta do? Does it mean “in” or “at”?

a is a very general locative preposition. It can often be translated as:

• in
• at
• on

The exact English choice depends on context. Here:

• a makaranta = “at a school / in a school”

So yana karatu a makaranta ≈ “he is studying at school.”

Why is there no a before kusa da gida? Could I say a kusa da gida?

In your sentence:

• a makaranta kusa da gida
  literally: “at (a) school near the house”

Here, a introduces the main place: makaranta (school).
Then kusa da gida is an extra phrase describing which school – the one near the house.

You can say a kusa da gida in other contexts to mean “near the house” as the main location:

• yana zaune kusa da gida or yana zaune a kusa da gida – he is sitting near the house

In your sentence, kusa da gida is directly modifying makaranta (“a school that is near the house”), so an extra a before it is not needed.

Why do we need da after kusa in kusa da gida?

kusa da is a fixed combination meaning roughly “near (to)”:

• kusa alone is an adverb: near, nearby, close by
• kusa da X = near X / close to X

So:

• kusa da gida = near the house
• kusa da kasuwa = near the market

If you drop da, it sounds incomplete when you want to say “near something”.

How do we know if makaranta here means “a school” or “the school”? Hausa doesn’t seem to have “a/the”.

Hausa does not have separate words for “a” and “the”. The bare noun makaranta can mean:

• “a school” (indefinite)
• “the school” (definite)

The interpretation depends on context and sometimes on noun forms (like adding a definite suffix), but in this simple form, context is king.

In your isolated sentence, it’s very natural in English to translate it as:

• “My brother is studying at a school near the house.”

But in the right context, “the school near the house” could also be understood.

Why is it gida and not something like gidana (“my house”) in this sentence?

gida by itself can mean:

• “house”
• “home”, in a general sense

Often, when Hausa speakers say kusa da gida, they mean “near home / near our house / near the family home” without specifying the owner, because it’s understood from context.

If you specifically want “my house”, you can say:

• gidana – my house
• kusa da gidana – near my house

So:

• ɗan uwa na yana karatu a makaranta kusa da gida.
  = My brother is studying at a school near (our) home / near the house.

The owner of the house is left general/implicit here, which is very natural in Hausa.