Learn Hardcore Hausa: Wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis yana son mace wadda take aiki a asibiti. - This man who works in an office loves a woman who works at the hospital.

namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis
→ the man *who works in an office (man = masculine → *wanda)
mace wadda take aiki a asibiti
→ the woman *who works in a hospital (woman = feminine → *wadda)

So they introduce relative clauses that describe namiji and mace.

Why is it yake after wanda and take after wadda?

-ke here is a progressive/continuous marker attached to a pronoun.

yake = ya + ke
- ya = “he” (3rd person masculine singular subject pronoun)
- ke = progressive marker
take = ta + ke
- ta = “she” (3rd person feminine singular subject pronoun)
- ke = progressive marker

They both mean roughly “is (the one) who is doing …” / “who works …”.

So:

wanda yake aiki
literally: who he is working → who works / who is working
wadda take aiki
literally: who she is working → who works / who is working

The ya/ta inside yake/take must agree in gender with the noun they refer to (man → ya, woman → ta).

Why do we say “yake aiki” instead of just “yakan aiki” or something shorter?

You cannot drop the pronoun in this kind of Hausa clause. Hausa usually needs an explicit subject pronoun with the verb.

The structure here is:

relative pronoun + subject pronoun + ke + verb

So:

wanda yake aiki
- wanda (who) + ya (he) + ke (progressive) + aiki (work)
  → who works / who is working

If you tried to say just “wanda aiki”, it would be ungrammatical because there’s no subject pronoun attached to the verb, and aiki by itself is more like a noun “work” than a finite verb.

What exactly does “yake aiki” mean in terms of tense and aspect? Is it “works” or “is working”?

yake aiki has a continuous/progressive sense, but Hausa aspect doesn’t match English perfectly.

In context it can translate as either:

“who works (there generally)”
“who is working (there now)”

Here, since we are describing what kind of man he is (his job), the natural English translation is “who works in an office.”

So think of yake aiki as something like “is the one who works / usually works”. The exact English tense depends on context.

Is there a difference between “yake aiki” and “yana aiki”?

Yes, there is a nuance.

yana aiki
- ya (he) + na (progressive marker) + aiki
- Commonly used for “he is working” (progressive, right now or generally)
In a relative clause like this, Hausa typically uses “yake”, not “yana”:
- mutumin da yake aiki a ofis
  the man who works in an office

You can see “da yake” or “wanda yake” etc. in relative clauses; “yana aiki” is more a straightforward main-clause progressive:

Yana aiki a ofis. → He works / is working in an office.

So:

Main statement: Yana aiki a ofis.
Relative description: wanda yake aiki a ofis.

Why is “wanda” used for the man and “wadda” used for the woman? Is this gender agreement?

Yes, it’s gender agreement.

Hausa has grammatical gender (masculine/feminine), and many words—including relative pronouns—agree with the gender of the noun they refer to.

namiji (man) → masculine → wanda
- wannan namiji wanda yake aiki…
mace (woman) → feminine → wadda
- mace wadda take aiki…

If it were plural, these forms would change, e.g.:

mutane (people) → plural → wadanda
- mutanen da suke aiki a ofis = the people who work in an office

Why is the word order “Wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis yana son mace…” instead of putting the main verb earlier?

Hausa often puts the noun + its relative clause together before the main verb that comments on that whole noun phrase.

Structure here:

Wannan namiji
→ This man
wanda yake aiki a ofis
→ who works in an office
(this whole part describes “this man”)
yana son mace wadda take aiki a asibiti
→ likes a woman who works in a hospital

So the full subject is:

Wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis
This man who works in an office

and then we get the main predicate:

yana son…
likes…

This is normal in Hausa: [Noun + relative clause] + main verb…

What does “yana son” literally mean? Is it “likes”, “loves”, or “wants”?

Yana son is:

yana = he is (progressive marker na with pronoun ya)
son = liking, wanting, love (from the verb so = to like/love/want)

In practice:

yana son = he likes / he loves / he wants

The exact English translation depends on context:

For people, “yana son mace” often means “he loves a woman” or “he is in love with a woman”.
It can also be milder: “he likes a woman”.
With objects: yana son shayi = he likes tea / he wants tea.

So in this sentence, a natural translation would be “he likes/loves a woman…”, often understood as romantic interest.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before ofis and asibiti? How do articles work here?

Hausa does not have separate words for “a” and “the” like English. The bare noun is used, and definiteness/indefiniteness is understood from context.

a ofis
literally: in office → in an office / in the office
a asibiti
literally: in hospital → in a hospital / in the hospital

Here we interpret:

yake aiki a ofis → works in an office (works in an office job)
take aiki a asibiti → works in a hospital

Hausa doesn’t need to say a/the; listeners infer it from the situation.

Is “asibiti” a native Hausa word? What about “ofis”?

Both are loanwords adapted into Hausa:

ofis = from English “office”
asibiti = from Arabic “mustashfa/asbitar” via other languages, generally used for “hospital” in Hausa

They are now fully integrated into Hausa vocabulary and follow normal Hausa grammar:

a ofis (in an office)
a asibiti (in a hospital)
ofis ɗinsa (his office), asibitinmu (our hospital), etc.

Could I say “wannan mutum wanda yake aiki a ofis” instead of “wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis”?

Yes, but there is a nuance.

namiji = male (adult) man
mutum = person, human being, man (in some contexts)

So:

wannan namiji → specifically this man (male)
wannan mutum → can mean this person / this man (more general)

Both are grammatically correct:

Wannan mutum wanda yake aiki a ofis…
= This person/man who works in an office…

Use namiji when you want to be clear that it is a male as opposed to a female.

How would the sentence change if I wanted to make both man and woman plural?

You need plural nouns, plural relative pronoun, and plural subject pronouns:

Singular original:

Wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis yana son mace wadda take aiki a asibiti.
This man who works in an office likes a woman who works in a hospital.

Plural version, for example:

Wadannan maza wadanda suke aiki a ofis suna son mata wadanda suke aiki a asibiti.
→ These men who work in offices like women who work in hospitals.

Changes:

Wannan namiji → Wadannan maza (these men)
wanda (sg.) → wadanda (pl.)
yake (ya + ke, he) → suke (su + ke, they)
yana son (he likes) → suna son (they like)
mace → mata (women)

If I wanted to replace “a woman who works in a hospital” with just “her”, how would that look in Hausa?

You would use an object pronoun suffix attached to son:

yana son mace wadda take aiki a asibiti
→ he likes/loves a woman who works in a hospital

If the woman is already known in the context, you can refer back to her as “her”:

Yana sonta.
- yana (he is) + son (liking/love) + -ta (her)
  → He loves her / He likes her.

So in a context where the description is already established, you could have:

Wannan namiji wanda yake aiki a ofis yana sonta.
= This man who works in an office loves her.

Can “wanda” and “wadda” also mean “that” in the sense of “that which”? Or are they only “who”?

They can cover “who”, “that”, or “which” depending on context. English makes a stronger distinction; Hausa uses wanda/wadda/wadanda more broadly.

Examples:

Abin da nake so = what I want / that which I want
Littafin da nake karantawa = the book that/which I am reading
Mutumin da na gani = the man who/that I saw

In your sentence:

wanda yake aiki a ofis → who/that works in an office
wadda take aiki a asibiti → who/that works in a hospital

So yes, they can correspond to “that” as a relative pronoun as well as “who”.