Learn Hardcore Hausa: Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa tana kusa da gida. - The school where I am learning Hausa is near the house.

Makarantar – the school
- Base noun: makaranta = school
- Final -r marks definiteness: “the school”
inda – where / in which
Introduces a relative clause of place: “where I …”
nake – I am / I (do) in this structure
- From ni (I) + aspect/focus element ke
- Used when something else (here inda) comes first in the clause
koyon – learning (of)
- Base verbal noun: koyo = learning
- With a following noun, it becomes koyon X = learning of X
Hausa – Hausa (language / people)
tana – it (feminine) is
- ta (she/it – feminine) + na (progressive / “be” for states)
kusa – near / close
da – to / with here as part of the fixed expression kusa da = near to
gida – house / home

So a very literal rendering is:
“The school where I am doing learning of Hausa, it is near to (the) house/home.”

Why is it Makarantar and not just makaranta?

Makarantar has the definite ending -r, which roughly corresponds to English the.

makaranta = a school / school (indefinite)
makarantar = the school (definite, specific one)

In Hausa, a noun often takes this -r / -n “linking/definite” ending when:

it is definite, and
it is followed by something that modifies or identifies it (a relative clause, a possessor, a demonstrative, etc.)

Examples:

Makarantar nan – this school
Makarantar Abuja – the school of Abuja
Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa – the school where I am learning Hausa

So here the relative clause inda nake koyon Hausa is describing a specific school, so makaranta takes -r: Makarantar.

What exactly does inda mean here? Is it “where” or “that”?

Inda literally has a locative sense: “where / in which place”.

In this sentence:

Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa
= “the school where I am learning Hausa”

It introduces a relative clause of place. In English we can translate it as where or as in which:

The school where I am learning Hausa…
The school in which I am learning Hausa…

Functionally it also works like “that” in English relative clauses, but with an explicit place meaning:

Makarantar da nake koyon Hausa – the school that/where I am learning Hausa
Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa – the school where I am learning Hausa (more clearly locational)

So here you can think: inda = where (at which place).

Why is it nake and not ina (as in Ina koyon Hausa = “I am learning Hausa”)?

Hausa uses different forms depending on what comes first in the clause.

Basic main clause:
- Ina koyon Hausa. – I am learning Hausa.
  (ina = I + progressive na)
When some other element is put first (time, place, or relative marker), you switch to the … nake … pattern:
- Yanzu nake koyon Hausa. – Now I am learning Hausa.
- A gida nake koyon Hausa. – At home I am learning Hausa.
- Inda nake koyon Hausa… – Where I am learning Hausa…

In relative clauses introduced by inda, the subject I cannot appear as ina; it must appear as nake:

✅ inda nake koyon Hausa
❌ inda ina koyon Hausa (ungrammatical in standard Hausa)

So:

ina is the form used when it is itself at the start of the clause.
nake is used when something else (here inda) is in first position, pushing the subject + aspect later in the clause.

What is the difference between koya, koyo, and koyon here? Why is it koyon Hausa?

In this sentence we are using the verbal noun (masdar), not a finite verb.

koya – verb: to learn / to teach (depending on context)
- Na koya Hausa. – I learned Hausa.
koyo – verbal noun: learning
- Roughly “learning” as a noun, like English learning or the learning

When the verbal noun koyo takes an object, it normally appears in a genitive-like construction:

koyon Hausa = learning of Hausa
(from koyo na Hausa → contracted to koyon Hausa)

So:

✅ koyon Hausa – the learning of Hausa
❌ koyo Hausa – wrong; the object needs that -n link
❌ koya Hausa – that would be a finite verb, not matching the structure after nake here, which is expecting a verbal noun phrase.

Literally, nake koyon Hausa is “I am doing the learning of Hausa”, i.e. “I am learning Hausa.”

Why is it tana and not yana in tana kusa da gida?

Tana agrees with the grammatical gender of makarantar.

Makaranta is grammatically feminine.
The feminine 3rd-person singular pronoun is ta (“she/it”).
In this progressive / stative form, ta + na → tana.

So:

Makarantar … tana kusa da gida. – The school … she/it (fem.) is near the house.

If the subject were masculine, you would use yana:

Gidan ya na kusa da makaranta. – The house (masc.) is near the school.
(gida is masculine → ya/ya-na → yana)

So tana is used because makaranta is treated as feminine in Hausa grammar.

Why does the sentence use tana instead of ne or ce to mean “is”?

Hausa has (at least) two common ways to express “is”:

Verbal “be” with a pronoun + aspect
- tana kusa da gida – it (fem.) is near the house
  Here tana is a verbal form: “she/it is (in the state of) being near…”
Equational “be” with ne/ce
- Wannan makaranta ce. – This is a school.
- Gidan nan ne. – It is this house.

Ne/ce is used when you simply equate two noun phrases (X is Y).
In tana kusa da gida, the predicate is not a noun; it is a prepositional phrase of location (kusa da gida). Hausa normally uses the verbal “be” (here tana) with such locative or stative expressions.

So:

Makarantar tana kusa da gida. – The school is (located) near the house.
If you said something like Makarantar nan ce. – It is this school, you would use ce because it’s noun = noun.

What does kusa da mean, and can you omit da?

Kusa da is a fixed expression meaning “near / close to / next to”.

kusa – near, closeness
da – with / to (here it links to the noun that follows)

Examples:

tana kusa da gida – it is near the house
wurin ya kusa da kasuwa – the place is near the market

You normally must keep the da in this expression.
Bare kusa by itself is not used directly before the noun in standard speech for “near X”:

✅ kusa da gida – near the house
❌ kusa gida – incorrect for “near the house”

So think of kusa da as a two-word preposition: “near to”.

Why is it gida and not gidana (“my house”) if the meaning is “near my home”?

The given sentence literally has:

kusa da gida – near (a/the) house / near home

There is no explicit “my” in the Hausa sentence as written.

If you want to say “near my house” very clearly, you would typically say:

kusa da gidana – near my house
(gida
- -na = my house)

However:

gida can also mean “home” in a more general sense.
In context, Hausa speakers might understand gida to mean the speaker’s home without a pronoun, especially if it is obvious from the situation.

So:

kusa da gida – near home / near the house (context decides whose)
kusa da gidana – explicitly “near my house”

Can I change the word order to Makarantar tana kusa da gida inda nake koyon Hausa?

You can say that, but the meaning changes.

Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa tana kusa da gida.
→ The relative clause inda nake koyon Hausa directly follows Makarantar, so it describes the school:
“The school where I am learning Hausa is near the house.”
Makarantar tana kusa da gida inda nake koyon Hausa.
Now the relative clause inda nake koyon Hausa is next to gida, so it most naturally describes the house:
“The school is near the house where I am learning Hausa.”

In Hausa, a relative clause normally attaches to the immediately preceding noun.
So to keep the intended meaning (modifying Makarantar), the original word order is the natural one:

Makarantar [inda nake koyon Hausa] tana kusa da gida.

Can I use da instead of inda, as in Makarantar da nake koyon Hausa…?

Yes, that is quite natural, and very common in speech:

Makarantar da nake koyon Hausa tana kusa da gida.

da is a general relative marker in Hausa, used for that / which / who / where, depending on context.
inda is more specifically “where / in which place”.

So:

Makarantar da nake koyon Hausa… – the school that/where I am learning Hausa…
Makarantar inda nake koyon Hausa… – the school where I am learning Hausa…

Both are correct. Da is more general; inda highlights the idea of place more explicitly.

Is Hausa always capitalized like in English?

In many modern Hausa texts written in the Latin alphabet, proper names (people, places) are capitalized, just like in English.

For language names like Hausa, practice varies:

In materials aimed at learners and in many modern publications, Hausa is capitalized, following English practice.
In some purely Hausa contexts, writers may not always capitalize language names consistently, especially in informal writing.

For your own writing as a learner, using Hausa with a capital H is safe and common, particularly in bilingual or pedagogical materials.

Is makaranta always feminine, and how does that affect the rest of the sentence?

Yes, makaranta is grammatically feminine in Hausa.

Consequences of that:

Pronoun agreement
- Feminine 3rd singular: ta (subject), tana (progressive/stative)
- So:
  - Makarantar tana kusa da gida. – She/it (the school) is near the house.
Demonstratives and other agreeing forms will also show feminine agreement:
- waccan makaranta – that school (feminine)
- wata makaranta – some/one (certain) school (feminine)

So in this sentence, the choice of tana (not yana) is directly determined by the fact that makaranta is a feminine noun.