Questions & Answers about Dalibi yana zaune a baya.
Dalibi means “student” and is:
- Singular
- Typically masculine (male student) or generic if gender is not important.
Related forms:
- daliba – female student
- dalibai – students (plural, mixed or male)
- dalibai mata – female students (if you want to specify)
So in this sentence, dalibi refers to one student (usually understood as male unless context says otherwise).
Hausa does not have a separate word like English “the” or “a”.
- Dalibi can mean either “a student” or “the student”, depending on context.
- If you’re telling a story about some student everyone already knows, it will be understood as “the student”.
- If you’re introducing a new person into the story, it can be understood as “a student”.
To make a noun clearly definite, Hausa often uses extra words like nan (“this/that here”) or demonstratives:
- Wancan dalibin yana zaune a baya. – That student is sitting at the back.
- Dalibin nan yana zaune a baya. – This student is sitting at the back.
But in the simple sentence you gave, dalibi alone covers both “a student” and “the student.”
Yana is a subject + aspect marker:
- It shows:
- who is doing the action: he
- what kind of time/aspect: an ongoing / not-finished action or state
So yana roughly corresponds to “he is …-ing” in English.
In the sentence:
- Dalibi – the student (subject noun)
- yana – he is (3rd person singular masculine, incompletive/progressive)
- zaune – sitting
- a baya – at the back
A very literal feel is: “The student, he is sitting at the back.”
We don’t say the extra “he” in English, but Hausa keeps the pronoun in the verb.
Yes, if you translate word-for-word, it looks like “The student, he is sitting at the back.”
In Hausa this is normal:
- The noun (dalibi) is the main subject/topic.
- The subject pronoun inside the verb (yana) must agree with that noun.
So the structure is:
- Dalibi – topic/subject
- yana – “he is” (agreeing with dalibi)
- zaune a baya – “sitting at the back”
In natural English, we drop the double subject and just say:
- “The student is sitting at the back.”
But in Hausa, you need both the noun and the matching verb form (yana) for a normal sentence.
Zaune is not the basic verb form. The basic verb is:
- zauna – to sit, to sit down
Zaune is a verbal noun / adjectival form meaning something like “in a sitting state”.
Common pattern:
- yana zaune – he is (in a) sitting (state) → he is sitting / he is seated
- yana tsaye – he is standing
- yana kwance – he is lying (down)
So:
- Use zauna in forms like ya zauna (“he sat / he sat down”).
- Use zaune after yana / tana / suna to express “is sitting / are sitting.”
They express different aspects (ongoing vs completed):
yana zaune
- Literally: “he is in a sitting state”
- Focus: the ongoing state – he is (currently) sitting / seated.
- Fits English present continuous: he is sitting.
ya zauna
- Literally: “he sat / he has sat (down)”
- Focus: the completed action of sitting down, not whether he is still sitting.
- Fits English simple past: he sat (down) or “he has sat down.”
So in your sentence:
- Dalibi yana zaune a baya. – The student is sitting / is seated at the back (and is still there).
a baya is made of:
- a – a common preposition meaning at / in / on / to
- baya – back, behind
So a baya literally means “at (the) back” or “behind.”
In this sentence it is naturally translated as:
- “at the back” (e.g., of the room, the bus, the class, etc. – often understood from context).
Yes, a baya can also mean “in the past / previously / before.”
Examples:
- A baya, ina zaune a Kano. – In the past / Before, I lived in Kano.
- Na taba yin hakan a baya. – I have done that before.
In your sentence, context makes it clear:
- Dalibi yana zaune a baya. – The structure plus yana zaune strongly points to physical location → “at the back,” not “in the past.”
Yes, you can say:
- Dalibi yana a baya.
This would mean “The student is at the back” (location only), without saying anything about sitting, standing, etc.
Compare:
- Dalibi yana a baya. – The student is at the back (maybe standing, maybe sitting; we don’t know).
- Dalibi yana zaune a baya. – The student is sitting at the back (both posture and location).
You change dalibi (male/generic) to daliba (female), and yana (he is) to tana (she is):
- Daliba tana zaune a baya. – The (female) student is sitting at the back.
Pattern:
- dalibi – yana (he)
- daliba – tana (she)
You need the plural noun and the plural verb form:
- dalibai – students
- suna – they are (3rd person plural, incompletive/progressive)
So:
- Dalibai suna zaune a baya. – The students are sitting at the back.
Structure:
- Dalibai – students
- suna – they are
- zaune a baya – sitting at the back
The word order is:
- Subject noun: Dalibi – the student
- Subject + aspect marker (verb-like element): yana – he is (ongoing aspect)
- Verbal noun / predicate: zaune – sitting
- Prepositional phrase (location): a baya – at the back
So the pattern is:
- [Subject] + [“he is”/“she is” form] + [verbal noun] + [place]
This is a very common structure in Hausa to describe ongoing states:
- Yaro yana gudu a waje. – The boy is running outside.
- Mutum yana tsaye a kofar gida. – The man is standing at the door.
- Dalibi yana zaune a baya. – The student is sitting at the back.