Breakdown of Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu suna wasa a waje.
Questions & Answers about Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu suna wasa a waje.
Wasu means “some” (of a group).
- Wasu yara = some children
- The second wasu refers back to the same children, and means “others / some (of them)”.
So the sentence structure is like English:
Some children are inside the house, others are playing outside.
The second wasu doesn’t repeat yara, but it is understood:
Wasu (yara) suna wasa a waje = Some (children) are playing outside.
In Hausa:
- yaro = child, boy (singular)
- yara = children (plural)
So yara is simply the plural form.
There is no extra word like “-s” to mark plural; the noun itself changes.
Suna is a combination of:
- su = they (3rd person plural pronoun)
- na = a marker of progressive / continuous aspect
Together suna roughly means:
- “they are (doing something now / currently)”
So:
- suna cikin gida ≈ they are inside the house (right now)
- suna wasa ≈ they are playing / they are engaged in play
In Hausa, you normally need an aspect marker with the pronoun when you state what someone is doing or where they are:
- bare pronoun su = just “they”
- suna = “they are (doing / being somewhere)”
So:
- ✅ Wasu yara suna cikin gida = Some children are inside the house (now).
- ❌ Wasu yara su cikin gida – ungrammatical in standard Hausa for this meaning.
The aspect marker na in suna makes the sentence sound complete and natural.
- ciki on its own is a noun meaning “inside, interior” (also “stomach/belly” in other contexts).
- cikin is ciki
- the genitive linker -n, meaning “inside of”.
So:
- ciki = inside (as a noun)
- cikin gida = inside of the house → “inside the house”
You’ll often see:
- a cikin gida = in the inside of the house → also “inside the house”
- cikin gida without a is also very common and natural.
Hausa normally does not use articles like “the” or “a/an”.
- gida can mean “a house” or “the house” depending on context.
- cikin gida therefore can be translated as “inside a house” or “inside the house”; in this sentence, context makes “inside the house” natural.
There is no separate word that directly corresponds to English “the”.
Wasa is a noun meaning “play, playing, a game, fun activity”.
In Hausa, many activities that are verbs in English are expressed with:
- “be” + verbal noun
So:
- suna wasa literally = “they are (in) play / they are at play”
- Natural English: “they are playing”
Other similar patterns:
- suna aiki = they are working
- suna magana = they are talking / speaking
- waje means “outside, exterior, outdoors”.
- a is a general preposition meaning “in/at/on”.
So:
- a waje = outside / outdoors (literally “at outside”)
You would not say cikin waje, because ciki means “inside” and waje means “outside” – they are opposites. The natural pair is:
- cikin gida = inside the house
- a waje = outside
Typically, no. You need the preposition a before waje for the normal locative meaning:
- ✅ suna wasa a waje = they are playing outside
- ❌ suna wasa waje – sounds wrong / very odd in standard Hausa
Locations like gida, kasuwa, makaranta often come with or without a, but waje nearly always needs a: a waje.
In this exact sentence, you should repeat it:
- ✅ Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu suna wasa a waje.
If you want to avoid repetition, the structure usually changes, for example:
- Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu kuwa a waje suke wasa.
- Wasu yara suna cikin gida, sauran suna wasa a waje.
But simply removing suna in the second clause without changing anything else is not natural:
- ❌ Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu wasa a waje. – ungrammatical.
You can say:
- Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu yara suna wasa a waje.
It is grammatically correct. However, in normal speech and writing, Hausa (like English) often drops the repeated noun when it’s clear:
- English: Some children are in the house, others are playing outside.
- Hausa: Wasu yara suna cikin gida, wasu suna wasa a waje.
So the version without the second yara is more natural and less repetitive, but both are correct.