Learn Hardcore Hausa: Ni ina aiki duk mako, amma gobe babu aiki. - I work every week, but tomorrow there is no work.

ni = the independent pronoun “I”, used for emphasis or as a topic.
ina = a subject + tense/aspect form meaning roughly “I am (doing) …” in the present/ongoing sense.

So:

Ni ina aiki duk mako
literally: “Me, I work all week.”

Using ni makes “I” the focus or topic, often contrasting with someone else:

Ni ina aiki duk mako, kai kuma kana hutu.
I work all week, but you rest.

Without contrast, you can still say it; it just sounds a bit more “emphatic” or “heavy” than plain Ina aiki duk mako.

Can I just say “Ina aiki duk mako” without “Ni”?

Yes, and that’s often the most natural everyday version.

Ina aiki duk mako, amma gobe babu aiki.
= I work all week, but tomorrow there is no work.

So:

With “Ni”: adds emphasis or contrast (“Me, I work…”).
Without “Ni”: neutral, simple statement.

In many contexts, especially in answers or explanations, speakers prefer the shorter Ina aiki… form unless they want to stress I (as opposed to someone else).

Does “ina aiki” mean “I work (regularly)” or “I am working (right now)”?

It can mean both, depending on context.

The form ina + verb/noun expresses a present, ongoing, or regular action:

Ina aiki.
– I am working (right now).
– I work / I have a job.

In your full sentence:

Ni ina aiki duk mako
The phrase duk mako (“all week” / “every week”) gives a habitual/regular meaning:
→ I work all week / I usually work all week.

If you wanted to be very explicitly “right now”, you might add a time word like yanzu (now):

Yanzu ina aiki. – I’m working now.

But ina aiki by itself is flexible: present continuous or general present, depending on other words in the sentence.

Do I need to say “ina yin aiki” instead of “ina aiki”?

You don’t have to; both are correct, but there is a slight nuance:

Ina aiki.
literally: I (am) work / I work.
Very common and completely natural.
Ina yin aiki.
literally: I am doing work.
Also correct; it can feel a bit more explicit or “activity-focused”.

Grammatically:

yi = “to do”.
yin = “doing” (the verbal noun).
aiki = “work”.

So ina yin aiki is literally “I am doing work”. In everyday speech, ina aiki is shorter and very frequent, especially for job/occupation:

Ina aiki a asibiti. – I work at a hospital.
Ina yin aiki a asibiti. – I’m doing work at a hospital.

You can treat ina aiki as the default; use ina yin aiki when you want to emphasise the activity “doing work”.

What exactly does “duk” mean in “duk mako”?

duk means “all / the whole / every”, depending on context.

In duk mako:

mako = week
duk mako ≈ “all week” or “every week”

Common interpretations:

all this week / the whole week (e.g. Monday–Friday, no days off)
every week (regularly), if the wider context is about a routine.

So in your sentence:

Ni ina aiki duk mako
can be understood as I work all week (no break) or I work every week, with context deciding which is stronger.

Why is it “duk mako” (singular) and not something like a plural, e.g. “dukan makonni”?

Hausa often uses duk + singular noun to mean “every X” or “all (of the) X”:

duk rana – all day / every day
duk shekara – all year / every year
duk mako – all week / every week

If you say dukan makonni (“all the weeks”), that sounds more like “all the weeks (plural) [we’re talking about]”, not a simple routine expression.

Alternatives for “every week” are:

kowace mako – every week (literally “each week”)
a ko wace mako – in every week

But duk mako is very common and natural in everyday speech.

What does “amma” do here? Are there other ways to say “but”?

amma means “but / however”. It introduces a contrast, just like English “but”.

In your sentence:

… duk mako, amma gobe babu aiki.
→ … all week, but tomorrow there is no work.

Other common ways to express “but” include:

sai dai – “but / except that / however”
amma dai – “but anyway / but still”
amma kuwa – “but really / but in fact”

You could say, for example:

Ni ina aiki duk mako, sai dai gobe babu aiki.
– I work all week, but tomorrow (however) there is no work.

For basic “but”, amma is the standard choice.

What does “babu” mean grammatically in “gobe babu aiki”?

babu is a negative existence / absence word, close to:

“there is no …”
“there isn’t any …”

Structure:

babu + noun = “there is no [noun]”

Examples:

Babu ruwa. – There is no water.
Babu wuta. – There is no electricity.
Babu aiki. – There is no work.

So:

gobe babu aiki
literally: “tomorrow, there is no work.”

It doesn’t take a normal subject pronoun like “I/you/he”; it just states that something does not exist / is not available.

What’s the difference between “babu aiki” and “ba ni da aiki”?

They are both negative, but they focus on slightly different things.

babu aiki
- Literally: “there is no work.”
- Impersonal: talking about work in general not existing / not available.
- E.g. a public holiday, a strike, or the office is closed.
ba ni da aiki (often pronounced / written bani da aiki)
- Literally: “I don’t have work.”
- Focus on you personally not having work:
  - No job
  - Nothing to do
  - You are free at that time

Examples:

On a public holiday:
Gobe babu aiki. – There is no work tomorrow (for anyone, in general).
Talking about your own schedule:
Gobe ba ni da aiki. – I don’t have work tomorrow / I’m not working tomorrow.

So in your sentence, babu aiki is appropriate because it sounds like a general statement about tomorrow being a non‑working day.

Can I move “gobe” to another position, like “babu aiki gobe”? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move gobe, and the basic meaning stays the same (“no work tomorrow”), but the nuance and rhythm change slightly.

Some natural options:

Gobe babu aiki.
– Tomorrow there is no work.
(Time word at the front; very common.)
Babu aiki gobe.
– There is no work tomorrow.
(Time word at the end; also fine.)
In your full sentence:
- Ni ina aiki duk mako, amma gobe babu aiki.
- Ni ina aiki duk mako, amma babu aiki gobe.

Both are grammatical. Putting gobe first tends to highlight “tomorrow” a bit more, similar to English:

Tomorrow, there is no work (stronger focus on “tomorrow”)
vs.
There is no work tomorrow (more neutral).

All of them are acceptable; the version you have is very natural.

If I wanted to say “I don’t work all week”, how would I negate the first clause?

To negate ina aiki (“I work / I am working”) in Hausa, you typically change ina to bana:

Ina aiki. – I work / I’m working.
Bana aiki. – I don’t work / I’m not working.

So you can say:

Bana aiki duk mako.
– I don’t work all week / I don’t work every week.

Or with emphasis on the subject:

Ni bana aiki duk mako.

If you want to be crystal clear that you have some days off during the week (not that you never work at all), you might add more detail:

Bana aiki duk mako; ina hutu a ƙarshen mako.
– I don’t work all week; I rest on the weekend.

Is there any difference between “mako” and “sati” for “week” in this kind of sentence?

Both mako and sati can mean “week”, and in many contexts they’re interchangeable.

In your sentence you could say:

Ni ina aiki duk mako, amma gobe babu aiki.
Ni ina aiki duk sati, amma gobe babu aiki.

Both are understood as “I work all week, but tomorrow there is no work.”

Notes:

mako is very common and widely used.
sati is also common and comes from Arabic; some speakers may prefer one over the other, or use sati in certain fixed expressions (like counting weeks: sati ɗaya, sati biyu, etc.).

For your purposes, you can treat mako and sati as practical synonyms for “week” in sentences like this.