Breakdown of Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya suna taimaka wa mutane su san labarai na gaskiya.
Questions & Answers about Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya suna taimaka wa mutane su san labarai na gaskiya.
Masu is a very common way to turn a noun or quality into something like an adjective for a plural noun.
- jarida = a newspaper
- jaridu = newspapers
- ’yanci = freedom, independence
- gaskiya = truth, honesty
masu ’yanci da gaskiya literally means “those who have freedom and truth” or “the ones characterized by freedom and truth.”
So:
- jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya ≈ “newspapers that are free and truthful / independent and honest.”
You cannot normally just say jaridu ’yanci da gaskiya; Hausa usually needs a linker like masu (for plural) or mai (for singular) to turn such qualities into modifiers of a noun:
- jarida mai ’yanci da gaskiya = a free and truthful newspaper
- jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya = free and truthful newspapers
’Yanci (often written yanci) means freedom, liberty, independence.
In this sentence:
- masu ’yanci da gaskiya = having freedom and truthfulness
When used about jaridu (newspapers), ’yanci usually implies:
- independence from government or big-money control
- ability to report without censorship
- not being forced to follow a certain political line
So the phrase naturally suggests “independent and honest newspapers”, very close to the idea of freedom of the press, even though that exact phrase isn’t literally spelled out.
In this context da works as the conjunction “and.”
- ’yanci da gaskiya = freedom and truth / independence and honesty
So the pattern is:
- masu A da B = “those who have A and B” / “those characterized by A and B.”
Some examples:
- mutane masu ilimi da kwarewa
people with knowledge and skill - gida mai tsabta da kyau
a house that is clean and nice
So da here is simply joining two qualities.
Suna is the 3rd person plural subject pronoun in a form that also marks continuous or habitual aspect:
- su = they
- suna + verb = they are (doing) / they (usually / generally) do
In the sentence:
- Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya suna taimaka wa mutane…
Independent and truthful newspapers help people…
or more literally: are helping people / usually help people…
If you said only taimaka wa mutane, you’d have:
- the bare verb “help people” but no explicit subject (“who helps?”)
- and no aspect (no signal of when or how regularly the action happens).
You could also use other tenses/aspects:
- jaridu… suna taimaka wa = they help / are helping (present, often habitual)
- jaridu… suna taimakawa = same meaning, slightly different form (see next question)
- jaridu… za su taimaka wa = they will help
- jaridu… sun taimaka wa = they have helped / they helped
Both are tied to the verb taimaka = to help, but they show different structures:
taimaka wa
- taimaka = help (verb)
- wa = preposition meaning “to / for (someone)”
- Together: “help to/for (someone)”
In the sentence:
- suna taimaka wa mutane = they help people / they are helping people.
taimakawa (spelled together)
- can function like a verbal noun / gerund (“helping”)
- can also be used in some dialects similarly to taimaka wa
Often you’ll see:
- suna taimakawa mutane
- suna taimaka wa mutane
Both are used in practice and both are understood as “they help people / they are helping people.”
Grammatically, the more transparently segmented form is taimaka wa, but taimakawa is very common in speech and writing.
Wa and ma can both introduce indirect objects, but wa is the more neutral and straightforward choice after many verbs, including taimaka.
- taimaka wa mutum = help a person
- taimaka wa mutane = help people
Ma also means “to/for,” but it tends to add a sense of “for the benefit of / on behalf of”, and its distribution is more restricted and idiomatic.
In most standard teaching and writing:
- taimaka wa mutane is the recommended form.
You may hear taimaka ma mutum in some speech, but wa is the safer, more generally correct choice for learners after taimaka.
Here su is:
- The subject pronoun “they” referring back to mutane (people).
- Also a marker of a subjunctive / dependent clause in this structure.
The pattern is:
- taimaka wa X su yi Y
help X (so that) they do Y
So:
- suna taimaka wa mutane su san…
literally: “they help people (so that) they know…”
In English we show this by “to” or “so that”:
- they help people to know true news
- they help people so that they know true news
Hausa often uses subject pronoun + short verb form (here su san) to express this kind of result/purpose clause.
The verb is sani = to know, but in many tenses and clause types Hausa uses a short stem form of the verb:
- Dictionary form: sani (to know)
- Short stem: san
In dependent/subjunctive-like constructions after another verb, the short stem is used:
- su san labarai = that they know the news
- ya san gaskiya = that he know(s) the truth (subjunctive/result sense)
You typically see sani in forms like:
- ina da sani (more formal: I have knowledge)
- verbal nouns or more nominal contexts
But after taimaka wa, where the meaning is help them (to) know, the natural form is:
- su san (short stem), not su sani.
In Hausa:
- labari = a story, a piece of news, a report
- labarai = stories, pieces of news, news
So Hausa treats labari as a countable noun, and its plural labarai is “news items / news.”
English uses “news” as an uncountable mass noun (“the news is…”), but many languages, including Hausa, see “news” as a collection of individual stories, so they use a normal plural.
Na here is a linker showing a genitive or descriptive relationship, similar to “of” or English adjective placement.
- labarai = news, stories
- gaskiya = truth
- labarai na gaskiya = news of truth / true news / truthful news
This na is sometimes called a genitive linker or associative marker. It can express:
- possession: motar Ali (Ali’s car) vs mota ta Ali / motar Ali,
- description: mutum na kirki = a good person
- other “of / belonging / characterized by” relationships
Here, it’s descriptive: labarai that are characterized by gaskiya = true news.
Grammatically they are the same word, but they modify different things:
masu ’yanci da gaskiya
- describes the jaridu (newspapers)
- gaskiya here = truthfulness, honesty in character and practice
- idea: newspapers that are honest / truthful / sincere in the way they operate.
labarai na gaskiya
- describes the labarai (news items)
- gaskiya here = truth/accuracy of the information itself
- idea: true, accurate news, not false reports.
So both are “truth,” but:
- first: truthful newspapers (their nature)
- second: true news (their content).
Two points here:
Object marking with “wa”
You need wa before mutane after taimaka:- ✔ suna taimaka wa mutane
- ✘ suna taimaka mutane (ungrammatical / at least incomplete)
Basic word order
Hausa uses Subject – (Aspect/Pronoun) – Verb – (Preposition) – Object – Clause/Complement.In your sentence:
- Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya (subject)
- suna taimaka (verb phrase)
- wa mutane (indirect object)
- su san labarai na gaskiya (subordinate result clause)
You can’t normally move mutane in front of taimaka without also re‑doing the structure. So:
- ✔ Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya suna taimaka wa mutane su san labarai na gaskiya.
- ✘ Jaridu masu ’yanci da gaskiya suna taimaka mutane su san labarai na gaskiya.
- jarida = a newspaper (singular)
- jaridu = newspapers (plural)
This is a common feminine noun plural pattern in Hausa:
- singular ending in ‑a
- plural ending in ‑u
Other examples:
- mota (car) → motoci (cars) – here another pattern ‑a → ‑oci
- akida (doctrine) → akidu (doctrines)
- hukuma (authority/agency) → hukummomi (agencies)
For jarida → jaridu, just memorize that ‑a becomes ‑u in the plural.