Na ci rabi na burodi.

I ate half of the bread.

Breakdown of Na ci rabi na burodi.

• ci: to eat
• na: of
• burodi: the bread
• rabi: half

Questions & Answers about Na ci rabi na burodi.

In this sentence, what does Na at the beginning actually mean? Is it just “I”, or is it also a tense marker?

The first Na does two jobs at once:

• It marks the subject: I
• It marks the perfective aspect (a completed action), which often corresponds to English simple past or present perfect.

So Na ci... usually means “I ate…” or “I have eaten…”.

You can think of it as a combined “I + (have) [done]” form.
Compare:

• Na ci rabi na burodi. – I ate / I have eaten half of the bread.
• Zan ci rabi na burodi. – I will eat half of the bread. (Zan = I will)
• Ina cin rabi na burodi. – I am eating half of the bread. (Ina cin = I am eating)

The sentence has na twice. Are these two na the same word with the same function?

No, they are two different functions that just happen to look the same in writing.

1. First Na (before ci):

   • Subject + aspect marker.
   • Means “I (did)” in the perfective.
   • Na ci… = I ate / I have eaten…

2. Second na (after rabi):

   • A genitive linker, roughly meaning “of”.
   • rabi na burodi ≈ “half of (the) bread”.

So:

• Na ci = I ate
• rabi na burodi = half of the bread

Together: Na ci rabi na burodi.

Why do we say rabi na burodi and not just rabi burodi?

In Hausa, when one noun is “of” another (possession, part–whole, etc.), you usually need some kind of linker between them. Here, rabi (“half”) must be linked to what it is the half of:

• rabi na burodi = half of bread

Without na, rabi burodi sounds incomplete or unnatural to native speakers. The na tells you that burodi is what the half belongs to.

Could rabi na mean “my half” here, like “I ate my half of the bread”?

In this exact sentence, no. The na is linking rabi to burodi, so it means “half of bread”, not “my half”.

To express “my half”, Hausa normally uses a suffix on the noun:

• rabina = my half
• rabinka = your (m.sg) half
• rabinku = your (pl) half

So:

• Na ci rabina. – I ate my half.
• Na ci rabi na burodi. – I ate half of the bread. (no “my” implied unless context makes it clear)

What is the basic word order of this sentence? Can I move rabi na burodi to the front?

The normal word order here is:

• Subject – Verb – Object
• Na (I) – ci (ate) – rabi na burodi (half of the bread)

So:

• Na ci rabi na burodi. – I ate half of the bread.

If you move rabi na burodi to the front, you change the structure and get a focus/cleft‑type sentence that sounds more like:

• Rabi na burodi na ci. – It’s half of the bread that I ate.

That second pattern is possible but marked (emphatic). For a neutral sentence, keep:

• Na ci [object].

Can I also say Na ci rabin burodi? Is there any difference between rabi na burodi and rabin burodi?

Yes, Na ci rabin burodi is also used and understood as “I ate half of the bread.”

• rabi na burodi – uses the separate linker na (“of”)
• rabin burodi – uses a bound form of rabi with a final -n that directly links to the next noun (a kind of “of” attached to the first word)

In everyday speech, you will hear both:

• Na ci rabi na burodi.
• Na ci rabin burodi.

They mean essentially the same thing in this context. Your teacher or textbook may prefer one pattern for consistency, but both are natural.

How would I say the same idea in other tenses, like “I am eating” or “I will eat” half of the bread?

Using the same object rabi na burodi, you can change only the verb phrase:

• Perfective (completed):
  Na ci rabi na burodi. – I ate / I have eaten half of the bread.

• Progressive / right now:
  Ina cin rabi na burodi. – I am eating half of the bread.

• Future:
  Zan ci rabi na burodi. – I will eat half of the bread.

Notice:

• Na ci – completed action
• Ina cin – ongoing action (ina
  • verbal noun cin)
• Zan ci – future (“I will eat”)

There’s no word like “the” before burodi. How do you know it means “the bread” and not just “bread” in general?

Hausa does not have a separate article like English “the” or “a”.

The noun burodi by itself can mean:

• bread
• the bread
• a loaf of bread (depending on context)

In Na ci rabi na burodi, context usually makes it clear that a particular bread has been mentioned or is obvious, so English naturally uses “the bread.”

If you want to be very specific, you can add demonstratives:

• burodin nan – this bread / that bread (nearby, specific)
• rabin burodin nan – half of this (particular) bread

How do you pronounce ci, rabi, and burodi? Does the letter c always sound this way in Hausa?

Approximate pronunciations:

• ci ≈ chee (like chi in “cheese”)
• rabi ≈ RAH-bee (short a as in “father”)
• burodi ≈ boo-ROH-dee (all vowels pronounced)

In Hausa phonology:

• The letter c is pronounced like English “ch” in “cheese”.
• So ci, ce, co, cu all start with a “ch” sound:
  • cina ≈ cheena
  • cewa ≈ chewa

It is never pronounced like English “k” or “s”.

Hausa is tonal. Are there tones in this sentence, and do I have to write them?

Yes, Hausa is a tonal language, and every syllable in Na ci rabi na burodi has a tone (high, low, or falling). Tone helps distinguish meanings and can affect how natural you sound.

However:

• In ordinary writing, tones are almost never marked.
• Native speakers rely on context and experience.
• As a learner, your main task is to hear and imitate the tones from audio or a teacher rather than write them.

So you don’t need to write tones, but you do need to practice hearing and saying the sentence with correct intonation.

If I’ve already mentioned the bread and I want to say “I ate half of it” instead of repeating burodi, how would I say that?

A natural way is to use a possessive suffix referring back to the bread:

• Na ci rabinsa. – I ate half of it. (literally: I ate its half.)

Here:

• rabin – half of
• -sa / -nsa – its / his (referring to a masculine or default‑gender noun like burodi)

If the context is clear that “it” = the bread, Na ci rabinsa is enough.
If you want to keep the full noun:

• Na ci rabin burodi. – I ate half of the bread.