Breakdown of Ni ina son makarantar sakandare a birni.
Questions & Answers about Ni ina son makarantar sakandare a birni.
Yes, both are first person singular, but they play different roles.
- Ni = independent/emphatic pronoun “I / me”.
- ina = the subject pronoun + present tense marker for “I” (literally “I am …-ing”).
In most normal sentences you can drop ni and just say:
- Ina son makarantar sakandare a birni. – “I like the secondary school in the city.”
When you keep ni, you are adding emphasis, something like:
- Ni ina son makarantar sakandare a birni.
→ “I (as opposed to someone else) like the secondary school in the city.”
So ni is optional and emphatic; ina is required for the present-tense verb construction.
The phrase ina son literally is “I am (in) liking/love of …”, using:
- ina – present/habitual “I am”
- son – verbal noun of so (“to like, love, want, desire”).
In practice, ina son X can mean:
- “I like X”
- “I love X”
- “I want X” (especially with things you want to have/get)
Examples:
- Ina son shayi. – I like tea / I want (some) tea.
- Ina son ki sosai. – I love you very much.
Context usually tells you whether it’s “like/love” or “want”. In your sentence, “I like/love the secondary school in the city” is the most natural reading.
So is the basic verb “to like / love / want”.
Hausa often uses a verbal noun after a tense/aspect marker to build meanings like “I am in a state of X-ing / liking / loving.” The verbal noun of so is sṑ or son, but in this construction it appears as son:
- ina son … – “I like / I love / I want …”
- kuna son … – “you (pl) like …”
- suna son … – “they like …”
So structurally, the sentence is like saying “I am (in) love/want of the secondary school…”. The form so would be used in other patterns, such as:
- Ina so in je. – I want to go. (here so is followed by another verb)
The -r (or -ar depending on the word) marks genitive/construct and very often makes the noun definite and links it to a following noun:
- makaranta – “a school / school (in general)”
- makarantar sakandare – “the secondary school” (literally “school-of secondary”)
So makarantar + sakandare = “secondary school” (a specific type, treated as definite).
This -r is very common when one noun possesses or modifies another:
- motar malam – the teacher’s car (car-of teacher)
- littafin Hausa – the Hausa book / a book of Hausa
In your example, makarantar sakandare is functioning like one noun phrase “secondary school.”
In standard Hausa, for this “X of Y” / “Y-type X” structure, you normally need the genitive/construct ending:
- ✅ makarantar sakandare – correct, “secondary school”
- ❌ makaranta sakandare – feels broken/incorrect in normal speech
There are constructions where you might get makaranta sakandare with something else in between or with a different structure, but for the basic “secondary school” noun phrase, makarantar sakandare is the normal, idiomatic form.
Hausa noun–modifier order is usually:
Head noun + modifier / possessor / classifier
So:
- makarantar sakandare
→ literally “school-of secondary”
→ “secondary school”
Other parallels:
- gidan gwamnati – government house (house-of government)
- motar soja – soldier’s car / military vehicle (car-of soldier)
English often puts the modifier first (“secondary school”), but Hausa puts the main noun first and the explaining noun after it.
Sakandare is a borrowing from English “secondary,” but in Hausa it behaves like a noun in this phrase.
The structure is:
- makarantar (school-of) + sakandare (secondary-level)
→ literally: “school of secondary (level)”
So grammatically it’s more like “school of secondary” than “secondary school” with a true adjective.
It doesn’t change for gender or number in this position:
- makarantar sakandare – the secondary school
- makarantun sakandare – secondary schools (plural “schools-of secondary”)
The plural is marked on makaranta → makarantu(n), not on sakandare.
You mainly need to make makaranta plural:
- makaranta → makarantu (schools)
- In the construct/genitive form before another noun: makarantun …
So:
- Ina son makarantun sakandare a birni.
→ “I like secondary schools in the city.”
Breakdown:
- Ina son – I like
- makarantun sakandare – secondary schools (schools-of secondary)
- a birni – in the city
a is a general locative preposition, most often translated as “in”, “at”, or “on” depending on context.
In your sentence:
- a birni – “in the city / in town”
Other examples:
- a gida – at home / in the house
- a kasuwa – at the market
- a hanya – on the road
So here, a works like “in” in English.
Yes, you can say:
- Ina son makarantar sakandare a cikin birni.
a cikin literally means “in the inside of,” so it is a bit more explicit: “inside the city / within the city.”
Difference:
- a birni – in the city (neutral, very common)
- a cikin birni – inside the city (slightly more explicit or contrastive, e.g., not in the villages around it)
Both are correct; a birni is shorter and very natural.
Yes, but the meaning shifts slightly in aspect/emphasis.
Ina son …
– neutral present/habitual: “I like / I usually like / I am fond of …”Na son …
– perfect / completed or specific action in the past OR strong assertion in some contexts, often interpreted as
“I liked / I have liked / I did like …”
In many situations, Na son makarantar sakandare a birni will sound more like:
- “I liked the secondary school in the city.” (past)
For a neutral statement of present preference, Ina son … is the safest and most common form.
You can add an intensifier like ƙwarai or sosai:
- Ina son makarantar sakandare a birni ƙwarai.
- Ina son makarantar sakandare a birni sosai.
Both mean:
- “I really like the secondary school in the city.”
ƙwarai is a bit more “strongly / very much indeed,” while sosai is a very common “very / really.”