Learn Hardcore Hausa: Gajimare suna rufe sama, rana ba ta fito sosai. - Clouds are covering the sky; the sun is not shining much.

gajimare – clouds
suna – they are (3rd person plural subject + progressive marker)
rufe – to cover, to close, to shut
sama – sky / the space above
rana – the sun (also “day” in other contexts)
ba … ta … – she/it does not / has not (negative + 3rd person feminine singular pronoun)
fito – to come out, emerge
sosai – very much, a lot, really

So structurally it’s like:

Gajimare suna rufe sama – “Clouds are covering the sky”
Rana ba ta fito sosai – “The sun has not come out much / isn’t really out.”

Why is “suna” used before “rufe”?

Suna is the progressive / continuous marker for “they”:

su = they
na (here fused as -na) = progressive aspect (“be doing”)
su + na → suna = “they are (doing)”

In Hausa, you normally show the progressive with a form like this:

suna rufe sama – they are covering the sky
muna cin abinci – we are eating
yana karatu – he is studying / reading

So “suna rufe sama” is not just “they cover the sky” in a general sense; it means “they are (in the process of) covering the sky” right now or around this time.

Why is “gajimare” treated as plural with “suna”?

Because here “gajimare” is understood as “clouds” (a plural idea), not just one cloud.

In Hausa, some weather nouns can be a bit flexible, but in everyday speech:

gajimare is often used to refer to clouds (plural) as a mass in the sky.
The verb phrase then agrees with that plurality by using “suna” (“they are”) rather than a singular form like “yana” or “tana”.

You could also talk about a single cloud with a singular verb in other contexts (depending on dialect and how you form the plural), but in this sentence the speaker clearly has multiple clouds in mind, so “suna” makes sense.

What exactly does “rufe sama” mean here?

Literally:

rufe – to cover / close / shut
sama – sky / what is above

So “rufe sama” = “cover the sky”.

The idea is that the clouds are spreading over or blocking the sky so that you don’t see much clear blue sky (and, by extension, less sun). Some close paraphrases in English would be:

“Clouds are covering the sky.”
“Clouds are blocking the sky.”
“The sky is overcast with clouds.”

Why is the sun referred to with “ta” (feminine), as in “rana ba ta fito sosai”?

In Hausa, nouns are grammatically masculine or feminine, and this affects the form of the subject pronoun.

rana (“sun/day”) is grammatically feminine.
The 3rd person feminine singular pronoun is “ta” (she/it).

So:

Rana ta fito. – The sun came out / has come out.
Rana ba ta fito ba. – The sun did not come out / has not come out.

In your sentence:

rana ba ta fito sosai – the sun has not come out much / isn’t really out, with “ta” agreeing in gender with “rana”.

How does negation with “ba … ba” work in “rana ba ta fito sosai”? Isn’t there supposed to be a second “ba”?

The basic pattern of verbal negation in standard Hausa is:

ba + (subject pronoun / subject) + verb (+ other stuff) + ba

So with a feminine subject:

Ta fito. – She/it came out.
Ba ta fito ba. – She/it did not come out.

Applied to your sentence, the “full” form would be:

Rana ba ta fito sosai ba.

However, in everyday speech, the final “ba” is often dropped, especially when the sentence feels complete or long enough without it. So people commonly say:

Rana ba ta fito sosai.

That’s what you see in your sentence. It’s still good, natural Hausa; the “missing” final ba is just colloquial shorthand.

Can I write “bata fito sosai” as one word?

It’s better not to in standard writing.

In negation, you should usually write “ba ta fito sosai (ba)” as two separate words: ba ta, not bata.
bata as one word is also a different verb meaning “to spoil, ruin, waste, lose (something)” (e.g. ya bata lokaci – he wasted time).

So for clarity, write:

Rana ba ta fito sosai.
or
Rana ba ta fito sosai ba.

and keep “ba” and “ta” separate.

What aspect/tense difference is there between “suna rufe sama” and “ba ta fito sosai”?

They actually use two different aspect patterns:

suna rufe sama
- Uses “suna” (progressive) + bare verb.
- Means “are covering” or “are in the process of covering”.
- This is ongoing / durative.
ba ta fito sosai
- Uses “ta fito”, the perfective/completed form (came out / has come out), inside a negative.
- So “ba ta fito” = she/it has not come out / did not come out.

So the whole sentence combines:

Ongoing action: Clouds are covering the sky
with
(Negated) completed action / result: The sun has not really come out (as a result).

That matches a natural weather description in English: The sky is covered with clouds, so the sun hasn’t really come out.

What does “sosai” add at the end? Could the sentence work without it?

sosai means “very much, a lot, really, strongly”. It’s an intensifier.

Rana ba ta fito. – The sun has not come out.
Rana ba ta fito sosai. – The sun has not come out much / not really come out.

So “sosai” adds the nuance that some light might be there, but not strongly. It softens “not at all” into “not much / not really”.

Yes, the sentence is grammatically fine without sosai, but you lose that “not much” nuance.

What does “sama” cover in meaning? Is it only “sky”?

sama basically refers to what is above. Its meaning depends on context:

sky / heavens:
- Taurari na cikin sama. – The stars are in the sky.
up / above / top in a more general sense:
- Ya duba sama. – He looked up.
- A sama – upstairs / up above (in some contexts).

In your sentence, because you’re talking about clouds and the sun, “sama” clearly means “the sky”.

Are there other common ways to say the same idea in Hausa?

Yes, you could phrase it in several natural ways. A few examples:

Gajimare sun rufe sama, rana ba ta fito sosai.
(Drop the progressive na, treat “sun rufe” as a completed/result state: Clouds have covered the sky…)
Sama ta cika da gajimare, rana ba ta fito sosai.
– The sky is full of clouds; the sun hasn’t really come out.
An rufe sama da gajimare, rana ba ta fito sosai.
– Passive-like: The sky has been covered with clouds…

You don’t need these variations to understand your sentence, but they show that “gajimare suna rufe sama, rana ba ta fito sosai” is just one natural way among several to express the same weather situation.

Can the word order be changed, like “Suna rufe sama gajimare”?

Not in a natural way for this meaning.

Normal, neutral order is:

Subject (noun)
- subject pronoun/aspect
  - verb
    - (object/complement)

So:

Gajimare suna rufe sama. – Clouds are covering the sky.

If you say “Suna rufe sama gajimare”, it sounds awkward or ungrammatical, because “gajimare” (the logical subject) is stuck at the end, after the verb phrase.

You usually place the lexical subject first:

Gajimare suna rufe sama. ✅
or, if the subject is already known from context, you can just say:
Suna rufe sama. – They are covering the sky. ✅

But putting gajimare after the verb like that isn’t the normal pattern.