Yanzu kowa yana ciki, babu yara a waje.

to be

Breakdown of Yanzu kowa yana ciki, babu yara a waje.

• yanzu: now
• yaro: the child
• babu: there is no

Questions & Answers about Yanzu kowa yana ciki, babu yara a waje.

What is the literal, word‑for‑word breakdown of Yanzu kowa yana ciki, babu yara a waje?

You can break it down like this:

• yanzu – now
• kowa – everyone / everybody
• yana – he is / it is (from ya
  • na, 3rd person masculine singular + progressive marker)
• ciki – inside / in the inside
• babu – there is no / there are no
• yara – children
• a – in / at / on (locative preposition)
• waje – outside / the outside / an outside place

So a fairly literal rendering is:
Now everyone he‑is inside, there‑is‑no children at outside.
Natural English: Now everyone is inside; there are no children outside.

If kowa means “everyone”, why is it kowa yana ciki and not kowa suna ciki?

In Hausa, kowa (everyone, anybody) is grammatically singular, even though its meaning is “many people”.

Because it is grammatically singular, it normally takes a singular verb form:

• kowa yana ciki – everyone is inside
• kowa zai zo – everyone will come

Using the plural suna with kowa (kowa suna ciki) is considered wrong in standard Hausa.

If you really want a clearly plural subject, you can say for example:

• dukansu suna ciki – they are all inside