Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu.

Four children are inside the house now.

Breakdown of Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu.

• ne: to be
• gida: the house
• yanzu: now
• yaro: the child
• cikin: inside
• huɗu: four

Questions & Answers about Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu.

How does each word in Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu line up with the English meaning?

Word by word, you get roughly:

• yara – children (plural of yaro, child/boy)
• huɗu – four
• suna – they are (3rd person plural, present/continuous form)
• cikin – in / inside
• gida – house / home
• yanzu – now

So the structure is literally: children four they-are in house now → Four children are in the house now.

Why is it yara huɗu (children four) and not huɗu yara like in English?

In Hausa, cardinal numbers usually come after the noun they count, not before it.

• yara huɗu – four children
• mutane uku – three people
• gidaje biyu – two houses

Putting the number first (huɗu yara) is not how Hausa counts nouns; it would sound wrong or at least very odd in a normal sentence.

So you should remember the pattern: Noun + Number, not Number + Noun.

What exactly is suna here, and where is the English verb are in this sentence?

Hausa does not use a separate verb to be in the same way English does. Instead, it uses special subject–aspect forms that combine a pronoun with information about tense/aspect.

Suna is one of these. It is historically su + na:

• su – they
• na – a marker often used for present/continuous aspect

Together, suna works like they are in English before a verb or a describing phrase:

• Suna cikin gida. – They are in the house.
• Suna aiki. – They are working.

Other forms in the same pattern (present/continuous) are:

• ina – I am
• kana – you (m.sg.) are
• kina – you (f.sg.) are
• yana – he is
• tana – she is
• muna – we are
• kuna – you (pl.) are
• suna – they are

So in Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu, the idea of are is built into suna.

How would the sentence change if there was only one child in the house now?

You would need to change both the noun and the verb form:

• Yaro ɗaya yana cikin gida yanzu. – One child is in the house now.

Changes:

• yara (children) → yaro (one child / boy)
• huɗu (four) → ɗaya (one)
• suna (they are) → yana (he is / it is, matching the singular subject yaro)

The pattern Noun + Number stays the same: yaro ɗaya, yara huɗu, yara uku, etc.

What does cikin add? Could I just say suna gida or suna a gida instead?

All of these are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

• suna cikin gida – they are inside the house (emphasises the interior)
• suna gida – they are at home / at the house (more general location)
• suna a gida – similar to suna gida; the a is a general locative preposition at/in, and it is often dropped before gida

Cikin literally means inside (of). It often appears with a following noun:

• cikin gida – inside the house
• cikin mota – inside the car

So suna cikin gida makes it clear that the children are in the house, not outside it.

Why is there no word for the in cikin gida? How do I say in the house, in a house, or in their house?

Hausa does not have separate words for the or a/an. The same phrase can be translated as the house or a house depending on context.

• cikin gida can mean in the house or in a house. Context tells you which one makes sense.

To be more specific, Hausa uses other devices:

• cikin gidansu – in their house
• cikin gidan nan – in this house
• cikin wani gida – in a certain/some house (more clearly indefinite)

But you do not add anything just to say the; you usually rely on context:

• Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu.
  – Four children are in the house / in a house now (whichever the situation implies).

Can yanzu go somewhere else in the sentence, and does that change the meaning?

Yes, yanzu is fairly flexible in position. Common options include:

• Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu.
• Yanzu yara huɗu suna cikin gida.

Both mean essentially Four children are in the house now.

Placing yanzu at the beginning adds a bit of emphasis on now (something like “Right now, four children are in the house”), but the basic meaning is the same. In everyday speech, putting time expressions either at the start or the end is normal.

Does yanzu always mean right now, or can it also mean these days / nowadays?

Yanzu most directly means now, and depending on context it can cover:

• right now / at this moment
• nowadays / at this time in general

For a very immediate sense right this moment, Hausa often uses:

• yanzun nan – right now, just now

For a “these days / nowadays” meaning, context (and sometimes extra words) will push it that way:

• Yanzu mutane suna amfani da waya sosai.
  – Now / Nowadays people use phones a lot.

How do I turn Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu into a yes–no question: “Are four children in the house now?”

Structurally, you do not need to change the word order. Yes–no questions in Hausa are often formed just by intonation, or optionally by adding a question particle at the beginning.

Two natural options:

1. Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu?
   – Said with rising intonation at the end.

2. Shin yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu?
   – More formal/polite or written style; shin is a question particle introducing a yes–no question.

Possible short answers:

• Eh, suna cikin gida. – Yes, they are in the house.
• A’a, ba su cikin gida. – No, they are not in the house.

How do I say “Four children are not in the house now” in Hausa?

You use the negative frame ba … ba around the pronoun and the rest of the predicate:

• Yara huɗu ba su cikin gida yanzu ba.
  – Four children are not in the house now.

Structure:

• Yara huɗu – four children
• ba su … ba – they are not … (negative frame with su “they”)
• cikin gida yanzu – in the house now

Spoken Hausa may sometimes drop the final ba, but the full form ba su cikin gida yanzu ba is the clear textbook pattern.

What is the special letter ɗ in huɗu, and how should I pronounce it?

The ɗ (d with a dot below) is a distinct Hausa consonant. It is an implosive d sound.

Guidelines for pronunciation:

• Start as if you are going to say an English d,
• But at the same time, slightly pull the air inward rather than pushing it out.

For many learners, it is fine at first to pronounce huɗu almost like hudu with a regular d. Native speakers will still understand you. As your pronunciation improves, you can work on the true implosive ɗ sound.

Is yara just the regular plural of yaro, and does it only mean “boys” or any children?

Yes, yara is the (slightly irregular) plural of yaro:

• yaro – a child, a boy
• yara – children / kids

In many contexts, yara simply means children, without specifying gender. It can refer to:

• boys and girls together,
• or just “kids” in general.

If you specifically need girls, you can say ’yan mata (young women/girls), but yara huɗu on its own usually just means four children, not “four boys only.”

Are there other natural ways to say almost the same thing in Hausa?

Yes, there are a few close variants, depending on the nuance you want:

• Yara huɗu suna gida yanzu.
  – Four children are at home / at the house now. (less focus on being inside the building)

• Yanzu yara huɗu suna cikin gida.
  – Right now four children are in the house.

• Yara huɗu suna a cikin gida yanzu.
  – Four children are in the house now. (a is a locative preposition; many speakers omit it before cikin.)

All are natural; the original Yara huɗu suna cikin gida yanzu is a clear, standard way to say that four children are inside the house right now.