Baba na ya fi ni girma.

Roughly, word by word:

• Baba – father
• na – my (possessive pronoun attached to Baba)
• ya – he (3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun)
• fi – to surpass / to be more than (comparative verb)
• ni – me (1st person singular object pronoun)
• girma – greatness / bigness / seniority (often understood as age or size)

So the structure is like:
Father my he surpass me in greatness/size/age.
Which corresponds to English: My father is older than me.

Yes, literally it is “My father, he…”, and that is normal in Hausa.

Hausa verbs normally need a subject pronoun (ya, ta, na, su, etc.).
When you use a full noun phrase as the subject (like Baba na), it usually comes before the verb, and the subject pronoun still appears before the verb as part of the verbal “slot”.

So the pattern is:

• [Full subject] + [subject pronoun] + [verb] …

Here:

• Baba na – full subject (topic)
• ya – required subject pronoun
• fi – verb

You can’t normally drop ya and just say ✗ Baba na fi ni girma. You need ya there.

Here na is the 1st person singular possessive pronoun meaning my. So:

• Baba na = my father
• Baba ka = your (m.sg) father
• Baba ki = your (f.sg) father
• Baba sa = his father
• Baba ta = her father, etc.

There is another na in Hausa that acts as a linker (genitive/prepositional na) between two nouns, for example:

• motar Malam or mota na Malam – the teacher’s car

In Baba na, na is not that linker; it is directly a pronoun meaning my and belongs to the noun Baba.

Both Baba na and Babana mean my father.

• Babana is the “fused” form: noun + attached pronoun together as one word.
• Baba na is the separated form: noun followed by the pronoun as a separate word.

Both are widely used and understood. You could say:

• Babana ya fi ni girma.
• Baba na ya fi ni girma.

In everyday speech, both forms occur. In writing, some people slightly prefer the fused form (Babana), but it’s largely a stylistic choice; there is no change in meaning here.

Yes, but then the meaning changes slightly.

• Baba na ya fi ni girma. – My father is older than me.
• Baba ya fi ni girma. – Father is older than me. (more like “Father is older than I am”, with no explicit “my”)

In context, listeners may still understand you mean your father, but grammatically na is what explicitly expresses my. If you want to clearly say my father, keep na (or use Babana).

Fi is a verb meaning to surpass / to be more than / to be better than. It covers what English usually does with be + adjective + than.

Typical pattern:

• X ya fi Y [in some quality].

In this sentence:

• Baba na – X (subject)
• ni – Y (the one being compared)
• girma – the quality (greatness/bigness/age)

So ya fi ni girma is “he surpasses me in greatness/size/age” → he is older/bigger than me.

The comparative idea (“than”) is built into fi, not expressed with a separate word like English than.

No, in standard Hausa the normal order is:

• [subject pronoun] + fi + [object pronoun] + [noun of quality]

So:

• ya fi ni girma – he surpasses me in greatness
• ta fi shi kyau – she is more beautiful than him
• na fi ka ƙarfi – I am stronger than you (m)

Putting the object after the noun of quality (like ✗ ya fi girma ni) is not standard. The pronoun ni belongs right after fi in this construction.

Ni is the independent 1st person singular pronoun meaning me / I (used as an object, and sometimes for emphasis as a subject).

• Here it is the object of fi: ya fi ni = he surpasses me.

Ina is something different:

• ina = I am / I am (doing something) / where? depending on context.
  
  • As a verb form: Ina tafiya. – I am going.
  • As a question word: Ina kake? – Where are you?

So:

• ni – pronoun I / me
• ina – a form used in progressive aspect (“I am doing…”) or as where.

Girma is a noun meaning greatness, largeness, bigness, seniority, high status.

Depending on context, fi … girma may refer to:

• age: Baba na ya fi ni girma. – My father is older than me.
• physical size: a person or thing is bigger.
• rank/status/respect: someone is greater, more senior, more important.

In your sentence, because we know it’s about father and me, the natural interpretation is age: My father is older than me.

You can still use girma, but context would need to make it clear you mean size, not age.

To be explicit about physical size, you might say something like:

• Baba na ya fi ni girma a jiki.
  – My father is bigger than me in body/physique.

Here a jiki (“in body”) clarifies that you are talking about physical size, not age or respect.

No change is needed; the sentence stays:

• Baba na ya fi ni girma.

The pronoun ya agrees with Baba (father), which is grammatically masculine, not with the speaker. Whether the speaker is male or female, Baba na ya fi ni girma is correct.

You would negate the verb fi using the standard Hausa negative pattern:

• Baba na bai fi ni girma ba.
  – My father is not older than me.

Breakdown:

• Baba na – my father
• bai – negative 3rd person masculine singular (from ba
  • ya)
• fi – surpass
• ni – me
• girma – greatness/age
• ba – sentence‑final negative particle

So bai … ba surrounds the verb phrase to make it negative.

Yes, a few possibilities, for example:

• Baba na ya fi ni yawan shekaru.
  – My father has more years than me (literally: surpasses me in number of years).

• Baba na ya girme ni.
  – My father is older than me. (Using the verb girme built from girma.)

However, Baba na ya fi ni girma is very common and perfectly natural.